Edition: U.S. / Global


By SHIRLEY CHRISTIAN, Special to the New York Times
Published: October 7, 1988

Gen. Augusto Pinochet spoke to the nation tonight and accepted his defeat in Wednesday's plebiscite on an extension of his term in office.

''I recognize and accept the verdict of the majority expressed yesterday by the citizenry,'' he said in a five-minute televised speech. ''I will respect the result and see to it that it is respected.''

The statement that he would honor the will of the voters, after 15 years of tough and often repressive military rule, came as his supporters and the victorious opposition began a tentative search for reconciliation. In contrast to the emotionally charged campaign, they spoke of ending confrontation and of the need for stability. Search for 'Consensus' Candidate

Virtually complete unofficial returns released by the Government today showed that General Pinochet lost his bid for a new eight-year term by 54.7 percent to 43 percent. More than seven million Chileans took part in the yes-or-no plebiscite.

In his televised address, General Pinochet firmly ruled out any change in the 17-month timetable for the election and installation of his successor and a Congress. The opposition wants to shorten the timetable, which, like the plebiscite, is called for in the country's eight-year-old Constitution.

''No one can feel they have the mandate of the people to twist what the people decided,'' General Pinochet said.

The spokesman for the opposition, Patricio Aylwin, called for the emergence of a ''consensus'' candidate who could become president when open elections are held next year. Large Rally Planned

After a night of uncertainty over the result, people began the day calmly, but jubilation spread gradually as college-age people began demonstrations and car caravans along Santiago streets. Most of the demonstrations were allowed to proceed, but the police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse them when they took over downtown streets. [ Page A12. ] Opposition leaders said they were organizing a rally in a park on Friday afternoon that would be ''a fiesta of democracy and reconciliation.''

After a delay of several hours in releasing results Wednesday night, while the opposition's growing tally was showing defeat for the general, the Government confirmed the trend at about 2 A.M. today.

Half an hour later, Interior Minister Sergio Fernandez went on television and said the Government stood by ''its unbreakable decision to comply with the Constitution and the law and see that it is complied with.''

After speaking of the need for stability and noting that the plebiscite had been clean and orderly, he said Chile ''and its permanent values'' had to be protected. ''As a consequence, we will respect the results that the country already knows about,'' he said.

General Pinochet's largely civilian Cabinet resigned today, but the Government announced tonight that he had reappointed all of the members.

This was expected to cause consternation among opposition leaders, who wanted him to replace those dealing with political matters as a conciliatory gesture to the opposition, which was led in the campaign by the Christian Democratic Party and a moderate Socialist faction.

A long road lies ahead in negotiations between the two sides, one that is supposed to lead to free presidential elections by December 1989. A Congress is to be elected in January 1990.

General Pinochet was reported to have been surprised at his loss, but after he held post-midnight meetings with his Cabinet and other military leaders, the Government recognized the results.

The plebiscite was conceived as an almost routine approval of General Pinochet by a public with no option, but the opposition seized the opportunity to confront him democratically.

If the general had won the plebiscite, which was part of an intended transition to democracy, he was to have retired from the army command and begun the new term in March as a civilian.

When the Government delayed for hours Wednesday night before announcing the returns, there were fears that a vote against General Pinochet might not be upheld.

The tension evaporated when the commanders of the navy, air force and national police went into General Pinochet's office shortly after midnight and the air force leader, Gen. Fernando Matthei, told a radio reporter that as far as he was concerned the ''No'' side had won. An hour later, the results were released.

Despite the timetable for a transition and the calls for reconcilation, it is not clear how political events will unfold.

The Christian Democrats and the 15 other parties in the Command for the No, which led the campaign to defeat the general, hope that, supported by their victory margin, they can convince the armed forces to enter into talks to move up the electoral timetable. They also want to amend what they describe as undemocratic parts of the Constitution, which was drafted at General Pinochet's direction.

Mr. Aylwin, the president of the Christian Democrats and chief spokesman for the Command for the No, offered an olive branch to the armed forces early today and called for an accord between ''the democratic forces'' and the armed forces to agree on ''a road of transition to an authentic democracy that includes us all.''

He recalled that his party and most other opposition groups had not wanted to confront General Pinochet - and symbolically the armed forces - in the plebiscite but had repeatedly urged free elections for the last three years.

Mr. Aylwin's party and several others, including the new Party for Democracy, which is dominated by moderate Socialists, are trying to agree on a governing coalition to support a single candidate in the elections. Possible Opposition Leaders

They have spoken of the need for a consensus candidate who would appeal to a broad range of the population. That is expected to include an appeal to the center-right parties that supported General Pinochet.

Mr. Aylwin, a 69-year-old former senator who was close to Eduardo Frei, President from 1964-70, is considered a possibility for that nomination.

But there are other names mentioned as well, including Fernando Leniz, a businessman long critical of General Pinochet who did not make public his position on the plebiscite, and Andres Zaldivar, first vice president of the Christian Democrats.

The fact that the Pinochet regime was willing to subject itself to a clean electoral test and that opponents dared to believe they had a chance to defeat him reflects something about the Chileans and their armed forces that differs from the situation in most Latin American countries.

Until the 1973 coup that brought General Pinochet to power, Chile had spent most of its century and a half of independence under elected governments. It has an array of political parties from extreme right to Communist.

At the same time, the military was a generally tolerant backer of the democratic process. When they ousted the Socialist-Communist coalition Government of Salvador Allende Gossens in 1973, it was done with support from a public angry over property confiscations and general economic chaos.

But the repression that followed, including the killing, imprisonment and exiling of thousands of supporters of the Allende regime, surprised and shocked most Chileans.

Photos of Chileans celebrating Pres. Augusto Pinochet's defeat (NYT/Sally Stapleton); Gen. Augusto Pinochet (pg. A12) (Reuters)