Jara and Kast should face each other in the second round, according to projections

The two candidates were already the favorites for the La Moneda Palace. The electoral campaign, marked by debates about insecurity and immigration, is one of the most polarized since the end of General Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship in 1990.

Jeannette Jara, 51 years old, is a former Minister of Labor in the current government. She represents a coalition that ranges from the center-left to the Communist Party, where she has been a member since she was a teenager. It is the first time since the end of Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship (1973-1990) that a communist candidate has won the left-wing coalition’s primary.

The far-right candidate, José Antonio Kast, is running for the third time. In 2021, he lost in the second round to Gabriel Boric, who cannot run again. Father of nine children, Kast declared in a previous campaign that he would not refuse to “have tea at La Moneda Palace” with Augusto Pinochet. He added that “if the former dictator were alive, he would vote for me.”

Election marks return of mandatory voting. The obligation was suspended in 2012 and reinstated after the 2021 presidential election. Around five million people who normally do not vote will be forced to go to the polls this Sunday, under penalty of fines if they cannot justify their absence.

* With information from RFI.