Following the October 5 plebiscite in which 55.99% of Chileans voted 'No' to extending Augusto Pinochet's rule, the final certified results in late October confirmed the outcome and set in motion Chile's return to democracy. Pinochet, who had ruled since the 1973 coup against Salvador Allende, was compelled by his own constitution to allow free elections, held the following year, ending fifteen years of military dictatorship.
Pinochet's government had drafted the 1980 constitution assuming a plebiscite would rubber-stamp his continued rule, complete with state control of media and an opposition kept fragmented and intimidated after years of repression, disappearances, and torture under his regime. Opposition leaders instead organized a disciplined 'No' campaign, using a strikingly cheerful, hopeful television advertising campaign — including a rainbow and the campaign song 'Chile, la alegría ya viene' ('Chile, joy is coming') — that contrasted sharply with the fear that had defined public life.
American strategists and admen reportedly advised the opposition to abandon grim reminders of the dictatorship's crimes in favor of a forward-looking, joyful message, a gamble that paid off as international observers and a parallel vote count made outright fraud impossible to conceal.
Pinochet reportedly considered ignoring the results, but pressure from his own military commanders convinced him to accept defeat. He stayed on as army commander for years afterward and later as a senator-for-life, escaping accountability for decades, but the plebiscite marked the beginning of the end of one of Latin America's most brutal dictatorships and became a landmark case study in how authoritarian rule can be defeated through the ballot rather than the bullet.