Two candidates on the opposite side of the political spectrum, José Antonio Kast for the far right, and Gabriel Boric for the left, were in the process of qualifying on Sunday evening for the second round of the presidential election in Chile.
According to partial results covering 65.52% of the ballots, José Antonio Kast, ex-deputy and 55-year-old lawyer, obtains 28.42% of the votes, ahead of Gabriel Boric, former student leader and 35-year-old deputy, who collects 24 , 90% of the votes.
Some 15 million voters – out of a population of 19 million – were called to the polls to decide between seven candidates for the presidency, to renew the entire Chamber of Deputies, half of the Senate as well as the regional councils. The candidate of the left-wing coalition “Apruebo dignidad” which includes the Communists in particular, and the leader of the ultra-conservative Republican Party were the favorites in the most recent polls.
Both were outsiders, standing outside the right-wing and center-left coalitions that have ruled the country since the end of Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship (1973-1990).
Gabriel Boric, the youngest presidential candidate in the history of the South American country, could count on the support of millions of Chileans, including many young people, who aspire to a more egalitarian society, after the wave of unprecedented social protest end of 2019.
“The country needs changes, we are tired of the same politicians,” Felipe Rojas, a 24-year-old student, said outside a polling station in the capital. “We want to vote, enough of this Chile,” impatiently Carla Fuenzalida, 19.
But the last few months have also seen an unprecedented rise of the far right in the polls, fueled by the persistence of violence by the most radical protesters and the growing concerns of voters over illegal immigration and crime.
Especially since the COVID-19 pandemic has raised unemployment and widened the debt, and that inflation is now close to 6%, a novelty in this country which has experienced decades of political and economic stability.
“You have to come and vote to turn this page of division and disorder in the streets,” said Cristina Arellano, who came to vote in Ñuñoa, a bourgeois district of the capital.
The country needs change, we’ve had enough of the same politicians
The ballot takes place in a Chile in transition, in the process of drafting a new Constitution and two years after an unprecedented social crisis to demand a fairer society in this country among the most unequal in the world, according to the Cooperation Organization and economic development (OECD).
In Chile, voting is no longer compulsory since 2012. No figures were yet available on participation.
José Antiono Kast, who shows his sympathy for Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, wants to maintain the neoliberal model inherited from the Pinochet dictatorship and promises to impose “order, security and freedom”.
” The essential [est que] everyone can express themselves freely, ”said the father of nine, after voting in Paine, 37 km south of Santiago.
Gabriel Boric promises him a model of the welfare state and to guarantee social rights. “May hope prevail over fear,” he said while voting in his hometown of Punta Arenas, in the far south of the country. “We represent the process of change and transformation that is happening. “
The liberal right-wing candidate, Franco Parisi, who lives in Alabama, in the United States, and did not set foot in Chile during the entire election campaign, surprised by rising to third place (13% ), ahead of center-left senator Yasna Provoste (12%) and right-wing ruling candidate Sebastian Sichel (12%), according to partial results.
Conservative President Sebastian Piñera, 71, who will step down in March 2022, could not stand for re-election after two terms (2010-2014, re-elected in 2017).