About Face
CHILE
Chilean far-right candidate José Antonio Kast achieved the most votes in the first round of Chile’s presidential elections, a victory that has puzzled many analysts who predicted more support for left-wing candidates, the Guardian reported.
Results showed that Kast secured 28 percent of the vote, beating his progressive rival Gabriel Boric by two percentage points. The two candidates will now face off in a runoff scheduled for next month.
Kast’s lead in the election came as a surprise: The former congressman has been open about his support of General Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship and campaigned on a platform of migration controls and conservative social values.
Many pollsters and analysts had suggested that Chile was moving more to the left following the 2019 mass protests against inequality that rocked the country. The large demonstrations also lead to the election of a broadly left-wing assembly tasked with revamping the Pinochet-era constitution.
Right-wing politicians also secured about half the seats in the senate during the congressional elections that took place the same day as the presidential polls, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Political analysts predict that the runoff will be a tight race as both Kast and Boric are attempting to attract centrist voters, including those who voted for libertarian Businessman Franco Parisi – he came in third with about 13 percent of the vote.
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