Chile went to the polls this Sunday to choose the country's next head of state, and the results, as expected, show that the far-right José Antonio Kast, of the Republican Party, has won against his opponent Jeannette Jara, of the Communist Party.
With 57% of the votes counted, Kast wins with 59%, against Jara's 40.8%. If the trend continues, the far-right candidate will be the successor to Gabriel Boric, who is expected to hand over the reins of the country to him on March 11, 2026.
The victory of José Antonio Kast (known as JAK) brings to power in Chile the most right-wing president since the end of Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship in 1990.
These were the first elections with mandatory voting since 2012, and 15.6 million voters were eligible to vote out of a population of 19.7 million. The fine for not voting – excluding those who were ill, out of the country, or more than 100 km from their polling station – ranged from 30.5 to 92 euros.
In fact, that was the big question, since in the elections of recent years about a third of the then 15 million voters did not vote. “These five million people are more distrustful of politics,” commented Claudia Heiss, a political scientist at the University of Chile, to The Guardian. In any case, in the first round of the presidential elections, on November 16th, this “new” electorate “showed itself attracted by the populist promises of the right and voted against the government coalition.”
After promising an"emergency government," with a campaign focused on combating crime and immigration, Kast was leading in the polls. Meanwhile, the communist candidate, representing the center-left governing coalition, aimed to continue the policies of President Boric – in whose government Jara served as Minister of Labor.
Jeannette Jara, 51, was thus punished by the widespread perception that the current government has failed to combat rising crime or a stagnant economy. Furthermore, the combined votes for all right-wing candidates exceeded 50% in the first round, making it likely that Kast would consolidate his votes in the second round, positioning him for a decisive victory.
Jara tried to center her campaign on the issue of rising prices for products like bread and butter, promising to raise the base salary. However, she had to shift her focus to security, saying she would attack the root causes of crime, increase pension benefits, reduce the costs of public services, and expand housing construction. But her long affiliation with the Communist Party – she has been a member since adolescence – did not help, as Chile is a relatively conservative nation.
Kast, 59, has promised to create a “border shield” through trenches and walls and the placement of cameras along Chile’s northern border with Peru and Bolivia. The veteran far-right politician, who has nine children, has also promised mass deportations of immigrants who are illegally in the country and the construction of high-security prisons. Since 2021, Kast has moderated some of his controversial positions, but remains one of the most prominent figures of right-wing populism in Chile.
