Partial results from Chile’s presidential election indicate that leftist former labour minister Jeannette Jara and far-right politician Jose Antonio Kast are headed for a runoff vote in December.
With 52.39 percent of ballots tallied on Sunday evening, Jara — a 51-year-old communist candidate representing an eight-party coalition — led with 26.58 percent, followed by Kast on 24.32 percent, according to electoral authority Servel.
The next-closest contender, ultra-right legislator Johannes Kaiser, conceded defeat.
Campaigning was overshadowed by growing public anxiety over surging murders, kidnappings and extortion in what has long been one of Latin America’s safest countries.
Rising crime has been widely attributed to foreign criminal groups, coinciding with a doubling of Chile’s migrant population since 2017. Migrants now make up 8.8 percent of the country’s residents.
Jara has promised to expand the police force, lift banking secrecy rules to combat organised crime, and address cost-of-living pressures.
Kast, frequently compared to United States President Donald Trump, has pledged to erect walls, fences and trenches along Chile’s border with Bolivia to block migrants arriving from poorer northern neighbours such as Venezuela.
Despite leading in the first round, Jara faces a difficult path to a December 14 runoff victory, as the combined vote share of right-wing candidates is far higher than that of the left.
Polls have consistently projected that Kast would defeat her in a head-to-head matchup. Jara’s tally fell short of pre-election forecasts, while Kast outperformed them. Pollsters had expected her to secure between 27 and 29 percent, compared with 20 to 22 percent for Kast.
The election is being closely watched as a gauge of the broader fortunes of South America’s left, which has recently suffered setbacks in countries like Argentina and Bolivia.
