Chile elections: Jara and Kast go to runoff to decide who will be next president

Chile’s presidential elections are heading to a runoff after no candidate reached an absolute majority in Sunday’s contest. Left-wing candidate Jeannette Jara and far-right José Antonio Kast came in first and second and will face off on December 14. Jara, the left-wing unity candidate backed by President Javier Boric, gathered almost 27% of the vote, with Kast raking in nearly 24%. Either of them will also require over 50% in December to win. A long-time member of the Communist Party, Jara served as Boric’s labor minister until April and was the candidate of the progressive electorate, although she also had some center-leaning proposals. This is Kast’s third time running for president, after he lost to President Boric in 2021. He carried out a campaign focused on security and measures against illegal immigration. Leader of Chile’s Republican Party, Kast is also a known supporter of dictator Augusto Pinochet. The race is set to be a confrontation of extremes, with Kast favored to become Chile’s next president. While Jara was the only progressive or left-leaning candidate, the three right-wing candidates got a combined 50.3% in Sunday’s election. Analysts expect all these votes to go to Kast, making him the favorite for the runoff. The big surprise of the night was who got the third place. Excentric outsider Franco Parisi unexpectedly made it to the top three with over 19% of the vote, turning him into the candidate that could define the outcome of the runoff. No poll had forecasted the result, instead putting far-right libertarian Johannes Kaiser or center-right Evelyn Matthei in that spot. Although Parisi has some right-leaning ideas regarding immigration, he has also been critical of the right-wing candidates and is seen as a sort of populist by analysts. The difficulty in pinning down his leanings casts a shadow of uncertainty on whether his voters will back Jara or Kast.  Speaking on Sunday night, Jara said she was “hoping for better results,” adding that this posed “greater challenges” ahead.  Kast called for unity ahead of the runoff. “For Chile’s sake, and in order to get out of the crisis we are submerged into, unity is fundamental,” he said. “We need to put everything on the plate for the cause, not for one candidate or one party. The cause is Chile.” He added that the runoff will be “a plebiscite between two models of society.” Over 85% of Chileans went to vote. This election marked the return of the mandatory vote, which was reinstated after introducing the voluntary vote in 2012. The other candidates Kast kicks off the race toward the runoff with considerable advantage. He is expected to have the support of those who voted for Kaiser, who came in fourth with 14%, and Matthei, who got fifth place with almost 13%.  Kaiser and Matthei were both present at Kast’s party headquarters and even got on stage with Kast, calling to vote for him in the runoff. Kast especially thanked Matthei for her support. During a speech on Sunday night, Jara began her campaign to try and attract Matthei and Parisi voters. She especially praised some of Parisi’s proposals, such as giving citizens back the added value-tax from medicine. Parisi, however, refused to back either Jara nor Kast. “Earn the votes in the streets,” Parisi said from his party headquarters after the results were released. “I don’t have any reason to hand over a bag of votes as if I was Virgin Mary.” “Parisi took votes from the government, it’s incredible,” Kaiser said in a video analyzing the results on Sunday night. “It means that Parisi is left-wing, or gathered left-wing votes.” A turn to the right Chileans also voted for lawmakers on Sunday, with the right significantly increasing its presence in Congress. Kast’s Republican Party and his allies earned 42 deputies of a total of 155, while Matthei’s coalition got 34, meaning most deputies will be right-wing. In the Senate, between the two fronts, they got 27 of 50 seats. Jara’s coalition, on the other hand, got 61 deputies and 20 senators. This election marked a sharp turn to the right for Chile, after the 2019 massive protests against ex-president Sebastián Piñera’s right-wing government and the promising start of Boric’s progressive government. The race also included two sympathizers of Augusto Pinochet’s deadly dictatorship, Kast and Kaiser. According to Alberto Mayol, a political analyst and sociologist at the University of Santiago, the drastic polarization between far-left and far-right candidates in this election is a result of a process kickstarted by “social discomfort, serious institutional failure, and inability to solve important issues.” “As the historical and political system fails, new names appear. But if those names don’t work, people look to experiment,” Mayol said, referring to the disappointment caused by Boric’s government. “In that scenario, people only understand candidates in extreme ends, causing polarization.”