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Chileans are voting in a presidential election Sunday that's pitting the governing leftist coalition against an array of right-wing candidates and will also redefine the country's legislature. There are eight candidates in the race and none are expected to get the 50% plus one vote needed to win the election outright, likely triggering a run-off between the top two candidates on December 14.Chilean law bans opinion polls 15 days before elections but the last numbers showed Jeannette Jara, the governing coalition candidate from the Communist Party, in the lead, with far-right Jose Antonio Kast, from the Republican Party, in second.Experienced moderate-right politician Evelyn Matthei, a former mayor and senator, led early polls but dipped in recent months and has been trading third place with libertarian firebrand Johannes Kaiser from the National Libertarian Party.Polling stations around Santiago, mostly at schools, filled with orderly lines of voters in the morning hours.First-time voter Samanta Paredes, 30, in Santiago's historic downtown, said she hoped voting would proceed calmly and create a middle-road path for Chile."I hope a more centered person wins, that the extremes don't win, because they're never good for anyone," she said.Law graduate German Rojas, 33, also said he hoped the election could create a spirit of unity, rather than polarisation."I'm not clear if one option or another has a better chance. But I hope that whoever wins has the capacity that Chile needs."Polls are expected to close at 6pm, but will remain open if there are still voting lines. Initial results are expected quickly with a full count within hours.Crime and immigration have dominated the electoral agenda, a far cry from the wave of left-wing optimism and hopes of drafting a new constitution that brought current President Gabriel Boric, who isn't allowed to run for reelection, to power.Even as they left their local polling stations on Sunday, candidates nodded to pledges to fight crime."People who would like to go out to see friends or go to the movies don't dare to because of crime. We have too much to do," Matthei told reporters.Another shift from the previous election is a mandatory vote for the 15.7mn registered voters. The previous election saw an abstention rate of 53% in the first-round vote and the large amount of apathetic or undecided residents set to cast ballots adds a wild card to the race."It's an unprecedented scenario we haven't lived through and it's playing out in a presidential election," said Guillermo Holzmann, a political analyst from the University of Valparaiso, who added the vote would be very difficult to predict, adding that polls in Argentina, Bolivia and Ecuador failed to predict recent results."(New voters) don't think in terms of left, right or center, they think in terms of what changes are needed and what will benefit them," he said.Most of Congress is also up for grabs, with the entirety of the 155-member lower house and 23 of the country's 50 Senate seats in contention.The governing leftist coalition currently has a minority in both chambers and right-wing majorities in both could set the stage for Congress and the presidency to be controlled by the right for the first time since the end of the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship in 1990.

Legal PerspectiveTo regulate and streamline the companies process, the intention of the legislature generally speaking, was that the company’s objects should be set out very precise and succinctly. This issue raised many legal and operational debates due to its importance for companies.Mainly, the idea is that the promoters should simply specify in general terms the business they intend to carry on during the tenure of the company. In this respect, the powers of the company which may be required as incidental to that businesspower are not intended to be specified as these would be implied by law.In fact, for long time, the courts have interpreted the legal provisions in a liberal spirit and agreed that everything reasonably incidental to the specified objects or powers of the company will be intra vires and not ultra vires. As a result, there is considerable body of case law deciding what powers will be implied in case of particular types of enterprise and the activities that can be regarded as reasonably incidental to others.However, many business owners show some reluctance in leaving matters to implication, they preferred to set out in the memorandum the ancillary powers which specify only the business which they thought they would need. Moreover, they were not content to specify only the business which the company was initially intended to follow, but preferred also to name and specify all other businesses which they might conceivably want to turn to in the future of the company.Generally, they put this in a very general term as, “and other powers that are ancillary to the main objects of the company”. Due to this, memorandums became far from simplicity as they contain statements of too many objects and also other ancillary powers covering every conceivable and all incidental powers which might be needed to accomplish them. This at least makes it less hazardous to enter into transactions with a company for the likelihood of their being ultra vires is remote.On the other hand, it offers little assurance of the preservation of the company’s assets and less control over the activities of directors, surprisingly at it may seem. As ironically stated by some parties in the business, “The modern gold mining co”, may quite have powers under the memorandum to operate fried-fish shops or grocery outlets. Or, a licensed bank to undertake aviation services or transportation commuting facilities. However, I believe, this is too far and out of context and for sure this kind of activities would be ultra vires with all relevant harsh legal consequences.To conclude, companies and directors shall endeavour to work intra vires and within the specific direct objects of the company and not to detour out of the route as this could easily end up as ultra vires, which could be very costly for both the company and likewise the Directors of the company. Hence, we urge all types of companies, small or big, to be very aware of their direct clear intra vires objectives. Moreover, the regulatory authorities shall keep an open vigilant eye all through, to make sure that “business is in order”. Dr AbdelGadir Warsama Ghalib is a corporate legal counsel. Email: [email protected]