Chile: Left-wing candidate Jara and ultra-right Kast are likely to advance to the second round
In Chile’s presidential election, a runoff will take place between left-wing candidate Jeannette Jara and ultra-right politician José Antonio Kast. In the first round of voting on Sunday, after more than 50 percent of the votes were counted, Jara got 26.58 percent and Kast 24.32 percent. A second round of elections in the race to replace leftist President Gabriel Boric will take place on December 14.
Jara is a member of the South American country’s Communist Party, but is considered a moderate leftist and is running as a candidate for the center-left alliance. Kast ran for the Republican Party and ran for president a third time.
The 59-year-old lawyer and father of nine thinks he has a good chance in the runoff: Voters of other candidates on the right – including radical right-winger Johannes Kaiser – could support him in the runoff. Kast would be Chile’s first right-wing president since the end of dictator Augusto Pinochet’s rule (1973-1990).
There are eight candidates in the first round of voting. The most important topics in the election campaign were the fight against criminal gangs and immigration. During President Boric’s term, the murder rate fell by ten percent, but increasing violence from criminal gangs was a concern for many Chileans. The country also recorded an increase in migration numbers. The majority of Chileans attribute the increase in crime to illegal immigration.
AFP
