Chile’s presidential election has been extended to the second round

According to Isna, following a very close competition between the candidate of the Communist Party and his far-right rival in the presidential elections on Sunday in Chile, this election has now been extended to the second round.

“Janet Jara”, the 51-year-old presidential candidate of the Communist Party and the former minister of labor of this country, who entered the race as a candidate of the ruling center-left coalition of Chile, was able to obtain 26.7% of the votes in Sunday’s election after 90% of the votes were counted, but he failed to obtain the 50% threshold to be the definitive winner of the first round of the election.

“José Antonio Caste”, the 59-year-old presidential candidate of the extreme right-wing “Republican” party, also won more than 24.1 percent of the votes in this round of elections, which shows that the voters liked his promises to restore law and order, fight organized crime, and maneuver anti-immigrant sentiments.

After it became clear that he made it to the second round of the elections, Kast asked the divided right-wing faction to support him unitedly and described this round of elections as an existential conflict over the future of Chile.

Kast, a politician who admires US President Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro, the former far-right president of Brazil, has promised to deport and return tens of thousands of undocumented immigrants and to build hundreds of kilometers of ditches and walls at the border between Chile and Bolivia in the north in order to prevent immigrants from entering.

Jose Hernandez, a 60-year-old owner of an agricultural company, said after voting for Caste in Sunday’s election: “We want change, and today the focus of this change is security.”

Although Khara won more votes in the first round of the elections, Kast could take the significant votes of the three eliminated right-wing candidates in the second round of the elections, who also promised to fight against immigrants.

In Chile’s presidential election on Sunday, Franco Parisi, a right-wing populist economist who has a large following on social media, came in third, and Yohannes Kaiser, a radical politician active on YouTube, who was elected as a legislator in 2021, came in fourth.

Outgoing Chilean President Gabriel Burich was unable to run for another term due to constitutional limits on running for re-election.

According to “Associated Press” report, Khara, like his rivals, set dealing with insecurity and criminals as a top priority and promised to extradite foreigners convicted of drug trafficking, strengthen border security and combat money laundering.

The second and final round of Chile’s presidential election will be held on December 14. Analysts believe that Kast and Khara will try to win the votes of the moderates and the middle class in the second round.

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