After years of alternation between the center-right and center-left, the political pendulum in Chile is now swinging towards ever greater extremes. According to the results of opinion polls, since the first round of presidential elections, for the first time since the return of democracy, there will be a second round of elections between candidates from the Communist Party and right-wing exponents who long for Pinochet’s dictatorship.
The days of good relations between moderately progressive Michelle Bachelet and friendly conservative Sebastián Piñera are long gone. The political program of expanding social rights of the left, represented by Jeannette Jara, is increasingly different from the political program of the right wing which has set security as the main theme of the political agenda and has not been shy about claiming responsibility for the deeds of one of the darkest governments in the history of Latin America.
“If Pinochet were alive today he would choose me,” he said ultra-conservative Republican candidate, José Kastin the 2021 presidential campaign. And now in his third bid for office in the ‘La Moneda’ house, Kast is now promising tough action like in the past against delinquency and illegal immigration.
He is the favorite in polls among right-wing candidates in which he also appears libertarian nationalist Johannes Kaiser – who also claimed that the crimes committed by the dictatorship that ruled the country until 1990 were “necessary” – and moderate Evelyn Mattheiof the Union of Independent Democrats (Udi), which, in order not to get out of line, is now promising “prison or grave” for criminals.
According to Kaiser, Pinochet’s arrival “saved Chile from being transformed into what Venezuela is today.” Polls don’t put him far behind Kast, and he could be a real surprise in this election. But if he doesn’t make it through the runoff, he assured on Sunday that he would support “any candidate who opposes Jara communism.”
With little chance of getting past the first round, there are also outsiders taking part Franco Parisi, of the populist Partido de la Gente; journalist and former president of the Chilean Football Federation, Harold Mayne-Nicholls; independent progressive, Marco Enríquez-OminamiAnd leader of the Proletarian Party, Eduardo Artés.
However, the unknown factor of mandatory voting weighed on Sunday’s election results. For the first time since 2012, Chile’s presidential election will be held using this system and experts predict that voter turnout will almost double compared to the 2021 election, with an increase of more than 5 million voters.
According to the director of the Public Policy Center of the Universidad del Desarrollo, Gonzalo Müller, interviewed by ANSA, “there is a clear correlation between the introduction of mandatory voting and the shift of voters towards conservative or right-wing sectors”. “New voters represent more than 30% of eligible voters, a volume of votes capable of completely changing the dynamics of the election,” Müller warned.
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