Far-right candidate tops Chile’s presidential polls
Chileans vote Sunday in a presidential runoff election in which the frontrunner is the son of a former Nazi party member and has vowed to build a border wall to curb migration, News.Az reports, citing the UPI.
Far right former congressman Jose Antonio Kast, 59, built his campaign on a promise to remove tens of thousands of undocumented migrants from the country. He faces Jeannette Jara, 51, a former labor minister in the administration of center-left president Gabriel Boric.
Jara, the leading candidate of the left-wing coalition, finished the first round of polling with 27%, but right-wing candidates, including Kast, secured more than half of the votes.
Kast is a known admirer of Chilean military strongman Augusto Pinochet, and a staunch opponent of abortion rights and same sex marriage.
The campaign has featured a bitter fight between Jara and Kast, with each attacking the other's ability to address crime, migration problems and a lagging economy.
Jara has pledged to attract more investment in the country and to secure the border while also addressing health care needs. Kast has campaigned on corporate tax cuts, deregulation and departing undocumented migrants.
Both are using the approval rating of the outgoing Boric's approval rating, hovering at 30%, as a platform for their campaigns, pledging to improve on the job he has done.
Chile has seen a sharp upturn in murder and other violent crime in recent years as international criminal groups have stepped into a country that has long been considered relatively docile.
The feat has spread to other Latin American countries, including Costa Rica and Ecuador.
Boric is considered to have failed to fulfill most of his stated agenda to strengthen public services. He also failed to address problems brought on by organized crime, election watchers have said.
Voters have called for more migration reform, tighter security and for the country to distance itself from Boric's failed policies.
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