Chile heads to contentious runoff: Far-right Kast battles communist Jara

By Laura Gamba

BOGOTA, Colombia (AA) - Chilean voters headed to the polls on Sunday for a presidential runoff pitting far-right candidate Jose Antonio Kast against leftist former Labor Minister Jeannette Jara in a stark ideological battle for the nation's leadership.

The election follows a first-round vote in November that saw Jara, of the Communist Party, surprisingly edge out her opponent with 27% of the vote against Kast's 24%.

Despite placing second in the initial round, Kast, of the Republican Party, is entering the runoff as the clear favorite. Final opinion polls show Kast is expected to defeat Jara by a significant margin, potentially by around 10 percentage points.

Kast’s lead is fueled by the backing of voters and candidates from right-wing factions that were eliminated in the crowded first round, where the combined right-wing vote surpassed 50%.

Jara faces a tough political environment. Despite her first-round win, her popularity is being dragged down by the low approval rating of the incumbent government led by President Gabriel Boric, which shares the same governing coalition.

The campaign has been dominated by issues that Kast has made the central focus. Although Chile remains one of the safest countries in Latin America, a rise in organized crime, homicides, and high-impact cases such as kidnappings has fueled a sense of lawlessness that the Republican candidate promises to tackle with drastic measures.

Kast has pledged measures such as the construction of detention and deportation centers for migrants, the installation of walls, fences, and ditches along the border, and greater powers for security forces. “Those who attempt to enter violently or disobey orders will be subdued with strict protocols,” his program warns.

Jara has proposed more moderate measures to contain the flow of migration, including an official registry of the more than 330,000 undocumented migrants currently living in Chile.