Chile convulsed, the extreme right could go to the second round

Santiago. In Chile there are 15 million voters, half of them undecided, summoned next Sunday to elect Sebastián Piñera’s successor among seven candidates, from the extreme left to the extreme right, in one of the most uncertain elections in 31 years of democracy .

On Sunday there are also votes for 155 deputies, 27 of the 43 senators and regional councilors. It will be the fourth election since 2020 to be held in Chile, which is going through a period of change since the harsh social unrest in October 2019.

Representatives of the two most antagonistic political poles arrive as favorites: the deputy of the Left Broad Front Gabriel Boric, the youngest candidate in history at 35 years old, and the lawyer and far-right politician José Antonio Kast, 55 years old and from the Republican Party.

“They say I’m extreme, but extreme in what?” Asked Kast, an admirer of the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship and in tune with leaders like Jair Bolsonaro and Donald Trump.

The polls published up to 15 days before -by law- gave him a favorite. They assign him around 20% of the votes, to contest a second round against Gabriel Boric. But since 2019, when Chileans have been summoned to several popular consultations, the polls have had sounded mistakes.

“The right proposes order without changes and Boric, changes without order, both lead us to uncertainty,” said Michelle Bachelet’s only female candidate, senator and former minister, Christian Democrat Yasna Provoste, who presents herself as a proud “heir” of the Concertación, the center-left coalition that governed much of the 31 years of democracy.



Reference-www.eleconomista.com.mx

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