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Chileans are voting on Sunday to elect a president as one of Latin America’s wealthiest nations faces the unfamiliar challenges of high crime, clandestine migration and a torpid economy.

Voters will choose between eight candidates, with top contenders including ultra-conservative José Antonio Kast, Evelyn Matthei from the center-right and Jeannette Jara, a member of the Communist Party. They will also elect deputies for the 155-member lower house and about half of the Senate. Polls opened at 8 a.m. and close at 6 p.m. local time, with results expected two to three hours later.

Polls show Jara advancing to the runoff on Dec. 14, where she will likely lose to one of the opposition candidates. That means the main question has become how far right the country will swing, as new mandatory voting rules force millions more to cast a ballot. Aside from Kast and Matthei, libertarian outsider Johannes Kaiser has enjoyed a surge in support in recent weeks and is a serious contender.

“Polls suggest Jara faces a relatively low ceiling and would lose a runoff against Kast, Kaiser, or Matthei,” Goldman Sachs Group Inc. economist Sergio Armella wrote in a note before the election. “Investors’ attention is also focused on the parliamentary elections and whether Congress could shift to the right. Particular attention will be given to the lower house election, as it has traditionally leaned left since the return to democracy in 1990.”

“Democracy is consolidated in our country, and every day we deepen it,” said President Gabriel Boric this morning at his voting station in the deep southern city of Punta Arenas. Boric, who was not eligible to run for consecutive reelection, will hand over power in March.

Local media showed long lines of people waiting to cast ballots in the afternoon heat, with no incidents reported.

When arriving to vote, all three of the main right-wing presidential contenders faced questions over the unity of their political sector in the second round. Kaiser said he won’t put any conditions on who he would support in the runoff. Matthei said the “intentions to work together” are more important than any photo opportunity.

“I believe that all the images of unity we can project are important, but that is each candidate’s decision,” Kast told reporters.

Lost Luster

Chileans are voting amid growing evidence that the nation — long known as a regional model of economic stability — has lost its luster.

The Finance Ministry sees economic growth around 2.5% this year and next, a clip that is a far cry from levels above 7% in the 1990s, when Chile was known as “the jaguar of Latin America.” Unemployment sits at a lofty 8.5%.

As the economy falters, the number of undocumented immigrants soared to an estimated 337,000 in 2023 from some 10,000 in 2018, according to the latest statistics available. News programs carry near daily stories of murders, kidnappings and organized crime that were practically unheard of a decade ago.

Kast, 59, is pledging “an emergency government” with fast action on the economy, crime and border security. He wants to slash regulations, reduce public spending by $6 billion in 18 months and deport thousands of undocumented migrants.

Matthei, 72, has touted her plan to create a million new jobs while lifting Chile’s economic growth to 4%. Kaiser, 49, is pitching public spending cuts on the order of 4.5% to 5% of gross domestic product and a hard-line approach to crime that includes implementing the death penalty.

Jara, 51, says she will strike a balance between beefing up border security and expanding Chile’s social safety net. She is pledging a hike in minimum monthly incomes to 750,000 pesos ($807) and a health care overhaul.

(Updates with comment from outgoing president in 5th paragraph)

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Author: Matthew Malinowski

Chile Vote Poised to Deliver a Clash of Political Extremes