Presidential elections in Chile, the Kast-Boric ballot is looming
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November 22, 2021 In Chile there will be a run-off for the presidential elections and it will be an unprecedented challenge: the far-right candidate Jose Antonio Kast will face off, finished in the lead with about 28% of the votes in the first round held yesterday (precisely 27.92%, with over 99% of the ballots scrutinized), known for his statements about Pinochet, and left-wing candidate Gabriel Boric, 35, a former student leader, who got almost 26% of the votes (precisely 25.8%). The ballot will take place on December 19th.
In Sunday's victory speech before his supporters, Kast raised the tone of his far-right rhetoric even further by presenting the December 19 appointment as a choice between "communism and freedom" and calling Boric a puppet of the Communist Party (which is a member of the broad coalition that supports his candidacy). "We don't want to walk the same path as Venezuela and Cuba," Kast said. Boric, on the other hand, accepted the results and invited his supporters to persuade the undecided, never explicitly attacking Kast by name and presenting the second round as a "hope to defeat fear".
Decisive for the second round could be the candidate who arrived in third position: it is Franco Parisi, who led his electoral campaign from the United States, without ever setting foot in Chile, and obtained 12.83%.
Sebastian Sichel, a center-right candidate, who got 12.75% of the vote in fourth place and told supporters that under no circumstances would he vote for the "leftist candidate", a reference to Boric.
On the other hand, Yasna Provoste of the center-left, who stood at 11.62%, declared that she could never be neutral in the face of the "fascist spirit that Kast represents".