Because no candidate achieved an absolute majority in the first round of Chile’s presidential elections, communist Jara and his right-wing national challenger, Kast, had to advance to the second round. Political observers look at the favorites.
Jeannette Jara of the Communist Party and far-right politician José Antonio Kast are running in a runoff election for Chile’s president next month. After about 80 percent of the votes were counted on Sunday (local time), President Gabriel Boric recognized Jara and Kast as the strongest candidates for the second round of elections on December 14. Boric stressed that dialogue, respect and love for Chile must bridge differences. Jara took just over 26 percent of the vote, Kast trailing slightly with just over 24 percent – and both were well below the 50 percent threshold needed to win the first round of voting.
Jara, a 51-year-old former labor and social affairs minister, 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. He was also the first candidate from the Chilean Communist Party to qualify for the second round of elections. After the first results were announced, Jara thanked his voters and spoke of a “great country”.
The 59-year-old Kast attorney is running for the Republican Party and running for president for the third time. Pollsters see Trump as having an advantage because they predict conservative forces will back the right-wing Republican Party founder and help him win. In his election program, he focused on tough action against crime and illegal immigration in response to widespread discontent in Chile. Kast also appeared confident of victory on Sunday: “We will rebuild our homeland,” he told his supporters after the first round of voting. The lawyer and father of nine will be Chile’s first right-wing president since the end of the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990).
There are a total of eight candidates in the first round. Based on partial results, populist candidate Franco Parisi took a surprising third place, ahead of libertarian candidate Johannes Kaiser and conservative candidate Evelyn Matthei.
Migration and crime shape election campaigns
The most important topics in the election campaign were the fight against criminal gangs and immigration. Although the murder rate fell by ten percent during leftist President Boric’s tenure, increasing violence from criminal gangs is a worry for many Chileans. The country also recorded an increase in migration numbers. The majority of Chileans attribute the increase in crime to illegal immigration.
Kast has announced that it will expel some 337,000 undocumented people – mostly Venezuelans – out of the country. During the election campaign, he announced mass deportations, construction of a border wall, strengthening the police and deploying the army in critical areas. “We need unity to overcome problems (…) related to security,” Kast said while casting his vote in the capital Santiago de Chile.
After casting his vote in Santiago, leftist candidate Jara assured that he had “no complexes regarding security.” “Inflicting fear alone is not enough to rule a country,” he said.
In parallel with the first round of presidential elections, members of the House of Representatives were also re-elected in the South American country. In addition, half the seats in the new Senate were allocated. If the far-right wins the presidency and control of both houses of Congress, it would be the first time since the end of Pinochet’s dictatorship. For the first time since 2012, voting is mandatory in Chile.
Reuters/AFP/AP/dp
