Chile’s presidential election set for runoff between communist and hard-right candidates
Chile is heading toward a tense presidential runoff after Sunday’s closely contested first-round vote set up a showdown between a Communist Party candidate and an ultraconservative veteran politician, sharply dividing the nation along left-right lines.
Jeannette Jara, 51, a former labor minister and candidate of Chile’s center-left governing coalition, received 26.7% of valid ballots with over 90% of votes counted, falling short of the 50% needed for an outright win, News.Az reports, citing CNN.
Her opponent, José Antonio Kast, 59, a hard-right former lawmaker and devout Catholic who opposes same-sex marriage and abortion, captured more than 24.1% of the vote. Kast’s strong showing highlights the persistence of his law-and-order platform amid rising organized crime, which has fueled anti-migrant sentiment in one of Latin America’s traditionally safest countries.
After learning he would advance to the next round, Kast urged the fractured right-wing to unite behind him, framing the runoff as an existential struggle for Chile’s future.
“It will be the most important election of our generation, a true referendum between two models of society — the current one that has led Chile to destruction, stagnation, violence,” he told fans, interrupted by cheers every few seconds. “And our model, which promotes freedom, hope and progress.”
Jara had a very different message. “This is a great country,” she told supporters in downtown Santiago, the capital. “Don’t let fear freeze your hearts.”
An admirer of US President Donald Trump and Brazil’s former President Jair Bolsonaro, Kast has vowed to deport tens of thousands of undocumented migrants and construct hundreds of kilometers of ditches and walls along Chile’s northern border with Bolivia to prevent people from crossing, particularly from crisis-stricken Venezuela.
“We want change, and that change today is about security,” José Hernández, the 60-year-old owner of an agricultural company said after casting his ballot for Kast.
Although voters gave Jara a slight edge on Sunday, Kast will benefit in the second round from a large share of votes that went to three eliminated right-wing challengers who campaigned aggressively on the need to tackle illegal immigration.
Like her opponents, Jara has called insecurity a top priority, promoting plans to deport foreigners convicted of drug trafficking, boost security along Chile’s borders and tackle money laundering.
“On the question of more jails, more punishments, more imprisonment, closing borders, restricting migrants, there is no debate anymore between the right and left,” said Lucía Dammert, a political scientist and Boric’s first chief of staff.
“But it’s an issue that always enhances the right, everywhere in Latin America.”
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