[citation needed] In that year, the coalition changed their name to Concertación de Partidos por la Democracia ("Concert of Parties for Democracy") and put forward Patricio Aylwin, the Christian Democrat leader, as a presidential candidate, as well as launching a common list for the parliamentary elections.

This forced them to negotiate all law projects with the right-wing parties, the Unión Demócrata Independiente (UDI) and Renovación Nacional (RN) (later coalesced into the Alliance for Chile).

[citation needed] In 1993, the coalition put forward the Christian Democrat senator Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle as a presidential candidate.

[citation needed] Frei's government faced two main problems: an economic crisis was raising the unemployment rate, and General Pinochet had been arrested in London.

However, in May 2005, after months of internal disputes regarding her party's directives, Alvear withdrew from the presidential race, deciding instead to run for senator in Santiago.

Bachelet therefore became the Coalition's candidate, and the second woman to run for Chilean President (the first being Communist leader Gladys Marín), competing with the UDI's Joaquín Lavín and RN's Sebastián Piñera.