The Republican Party’s presidential candidate won 28.1 percent after counting over 90 percent of the vote.
(Photo: dpa)
Santiago After right-wing populist Jose Antonio Kast won the presidential election, Chile is heading for the runoff elections in December. After counting over 90 percent of the votes, Kast was able to unite 28.1 percent. According to the electoral office, the left-wing Gabriel Boric accounted for 25.64 percent.
“Today the Chilean people spoke,” said Kast in a speech to his supporters after the results were announced late on Sunday evening (local time). As during the entire election campaign, he addressed crime and violence, thereby addressing fears of immigration and violent protests. The vote was a choice between “freedom and communism,” said Kast, an allusion to Boric’s broad left alliance, which also includes the Communist Party.
Boric addressed the issues of crime and drug trafficking in his speech, which he rarely did before the election. He admitted that he needed to broaden his support base. “The main idea is that hope prevails over fear,” he said.
Since none of the candidates received more than 50 percent of the vote in the first ballot, there will now be a runoff between Kast and Boric on December 19.
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The elections took place after two years of partly violent protests for more social justice. The demonstrations contributed to the fact that the constitution from the era of the dictator Pinochet is currently being revised and spurred the candidacy of Boric, who had a comfortable lead over long distances.
But increasing crime and political violence had given Kast a boost. “He will fight the drug trafficking that is causing so much damage to our country,” said a 66-year-old widower from the upscale Santiago neighborhood of Las Condes, about the right-wing candidate. “He will also control immigration because there are many immigrants who come to harm Chile”.
Augusto Pinochet overthrew democratic government in 1973
“For me, the most important thing is that we create a country where people have rights,” said 54-year-old lawyer Romario Deluca before voting for Boric in front of a polling station in downtown Santiago. It is about “personal rights, housing, health care, regardless of income”.
The military general Augusto Pinochet overthrew the democratically elected government of the South American country in a bloody coup in 1973. During his 17-year rule, more than 3,000 people were killed or disappeared and tens of thousands were tortured.
Kast, a 55-year-old Catholic and father of nine children, had praised the neoliberal “economic legacy” of the former dictator. His frank words, his blanket conservatism and his sometimes idiosyncratic political ideas, such as digging a trench to contain illegal immigration, have often brought about comparisons with former US President Donald Trump and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.
All 155 seats in the Chilean lower house and 27 of the 50 seats in the upper house were also available for election.
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