The beginning of the counting of the Chilean presidential election, this Sunday (19), shows the candidate Gabriel Boric, from the left, ahead of the ultra-rightist José Antonio Kast. With 13.1% of the ballots counted, the name of Frente Amplio has 53.3% of the votes, against 46.6% of the candidate of the Republican Party.
The initial trend indicates a turnaround from the first round, when Kast led the race, with 27.9%, and Boric was right behind, with 25.8%. If elected, the leftist will become the youngest president in Chilean history, aged 35, the minimum age to run for office.
A student leader who led protests for free university education in 2011, Boric later became a deputy for two terms. Kast, on the other hand, is an old acquaintance of Chilean politics. Deputy from 2002 to 2018, he runs for the presidency for the second time — in the first, he won 8% of the votes.
Candidates also contrast in the proposals. While Boric defends a reform of the pension system, Kast wants the maintenance of private pension funds and, in the campaign, he bet on the anti-communist speech and against illegal immigration.
The leftist also advocates legalizing abortion and marijuana cultivation, though he does not favor a broader drug legalization policy. Kast, for his part, supports a conservative civil rights platform and wants the militarization of the south of the country, where groups defending the rights of the Mapuche indigenous people are in continuous confrontation with landowners.
The ultra-rightist claims to be an admirer of Augusto Pinochet and voted for the continuation of the military dictatorship in the 1988 referendum. Son of German immigrants, one of his brothers was a minister during the regime.
Election day was fraught with tension due to heavy traffic jams in the metropolitan area of Santiago, intense heat and records of difficulties in accessing public transport in rural areas.
The reports caused both candidates to complain about the transportation system. In an audio, Kast said that in some regions there are few buses and asked the government to make available as much capacity as possible so that people could vote. “Meanwhile, I appeal to society, to neighbors who have vehicles, to help bring as many people as possible to the polling stations.”
Boric, in turn, on a stopover on his flight from Punta Arenas, where he voted, to the capital, released an audio in which he said he had received reports of problems in public transport both in the metropolitan area and in the countryside. “More than assigning responsibilities, what I ask is that the government look for a solution, then we see what happened. But we know of places where only 50% of the bus fleet is working. There are rural regions where public transport is simply not working. is passing.”
Transport Minister Gloria Hutt, however, denied a decrease in the flow of buses and said that public transport vehicles are working “as in a normal working day”. “What we’ve seen in the last few hours is that there are episodes of congestion, and that affects public transport.”
Hutt ruled out the possibility that buses were taken out of circulation to impede voter mobility. “We didn’t do that, there are contracts to fulfill between the companies and the ministry, and we are watching for this to be fulfilled”. Jaime Bellolio, government spokesman, was in the same vein. “We are in a polarized moment, they are talking lies. There is a delay because there is a lot of traffic.”
Boric and Kast voted at practically the same time, around 9:20 am. Boric went to a college in Punta Arenas, his hometown, and Kast, to a polling place in Paine, in the metropolitan area of Santiago.
The leftist arrived accompanied by his girlfriend, Irina Karamanos, and his brother Simón. “The sense of historic responsibility I feel is tremendous. I am hopeful and calm, because we had a clean campaign, without spreading lies. Tonight, we will respect the result, whatever it may be.”
Kast said he expected the result to be “very tight” and said he was “confident that Servel’s data [órgão eleitoral chileno] they will be correct.” “But if the result is too tight, the polling stations will play an important role, and that election could be set in the electoral courts.”
Chile’s next president takes office on March 11, 2022 with a list of obvious challenges.
Among the series of problems to be dealt with are the responsibility to initiate social security reform, the main desire of Chileans, the country’s economic crisis, the continuity of the policy to fight the coronavirus pandemic, the forwarding of the Constituent Assembly process and the attempt to establish a harmonious relationship with Congress, in which there is no clear majority.
Faced with the worst recession in decades, the economy appears as the most latent issue. GDP shrank by 6 percentage points in 2020, due to the impact of Covid, which also caused the loss of 1 million jobs, and the level of poverty, in turn, went from 8.1% in 2019 to 12.2% in 2021.
Although a 5.5% GDP growth is expected in 2021, the recovery is still fragile and slow to meet the increase in social needs and the expenditure made by the State to minimize the impact of the pandemic. Inflation may exceed 6% this year, double the target set by the Central Bank.
Also in the economic area, the government will have to deal with the effects of the withdrawal of US$ 50 billion from private pension funds, released by Congress in the pandemic, contrary to President Sebastián Piñera.
The success of negotiations to approve the reforms and define the Constituent Assembly’s next steps depends on the government’s relationship with Congress. The plebiscite to approve or reject the new Charter is expected to take place in October, and the new Constitution may have among its articles the change from the presidential system to the parliamentary system, or even the redefinition of the president’s term of office.
In this case, the elected representative might have to call new elections or leave office earlier than expected.
Chile’s success in the vaccination campaign against Covid also represents a high level to be maintained. The country has 85.7% of the population with two doses, and 51.2% with three. THE leaf Rodrigo Yáñez, undersecretary for economics at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, stated that the country has enough vaccines to finish immunization with the booster dose and start the application of the fourth dose, but that it is necessary to start negotiations for the campaign in the second half of the year. next year.
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