More than 15 million Chileans are called to vote this Sunday to elect a new president and renew all seats in the House of Representatives and about half of the seats in the Senate.
Voting will open on Sunday at 8am (local time) and close at 6pm (10pm in Italy) and all eyes will be on the presidential election where 8 candidates will compete, four of whom have a real possibility of taking office in January in the government building ‘La Moneda’.
According to the latest polls, none of the candidates is able to surpass the 50% of votes needed to assert themselves in the first round and the final victory will only be determined in the second round on December 14. The figures show that the favorite to occupy the place for the general election is the candidate of the left-wing coalition Unidad por Chile, the communist Jeannette Jara, who is accredited by the survey with around 30% of the preferences while the right-wing present in the first round is divided by three candidates.
Conservative José Kast, a Republican, is favored to run in the runoff against libertarians longing for Pinochet’s dictatorship, Johannes Kaiser – who could represent an election surprise – and moderate Evelyn Matthei.
For the first time since 2012, a presidential election will be held with mandatory voting and experts estimate that voter turnout could almost double compared to the 2021 round, with an increase of more than 5 million voters.
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