The most voted president. José Antonio Kast, leader of the far right of the Republican Party, has been elected president of Chile since Sunday with the highest number of votes that a president has had in the history of Chile: more than 7.2 million votes, or 58.1%, against the 5.2 million of Jeannette Jara, left-wing candidate, communist activist, who reached 41.8%. The data is due to the system of automatic registration in the registers (electoral list) and compulsory voting, in force for three years. This is the first presidential election to be held according to these rules. President Gabriel Boric held the record for the highest vote until now: in 2021 he obtained 4.6 million supports (55.8%) against Kast himself, although this vote took place with a voluntary voting system.
The approve-reject divide. As some Chilean analysts have asserted, with this election the map of Chilean politics would have changed: it would no longer be ordered between Yeah and the No to Pinochet during the 1988 plebiscite – the dichotomy between dictatorship and democracy, between perpetrators and victims – but according to the sides of the social epidemic of 2019 and what followed. According to this vision, defended by David Altman or Pablo Ortúzar, the country now finds itself between approving and rejecting the proposal of the first constitutional process, led by the radical left: 62% of those who rejected the text, against 38% of those who supported it during the plebiscite of September 2022. Regardless, the percentages of Kast and Jara, respectively, are close to those obtained by the two alternatives three years ago. years.
The distance of 16 points. It’s no surprise that Kast easily won this second round against Jara. All the polls showed his victory and by a wide margin, around what ultimately happened: 58.1% to 41.8%. Within the ruling party it was even expressed with reservation that they doubted it would reach 40%, which Jara ultimately achieved. This resounding victory leaves Kast and the right, particularly the Republicans, with sufficient popular support to carry out their agenda, focused on an emergency government focused on controlling crime, irregular migration and economic growth. Only once since the return to democracy in 1990 has the gap been larger in the second round: the 2013 election between Michelle Bachelet, a socialist, and Evelyn Matthei, of the traditional right-wing UDI. 12 years ago, there was a gap of 24.3% between the two, in favor of Bachelet. “It’s a clear mandate to make the necessary changes,” Kast said this evening.
Which they both argued. Jara went from 3,476,615 votes in the first round in November to 5,213,524, or 1.8 million additional supports in one month. Kast, on the other hand, which reached 3,097,717, reached 7,248,013 this Sunday, 4.2 million more, more than double that of Jara. The distribution of the 2,552,649 votes obtained in the first round by Franco Parisi, a populist, who did not call for voting for either Jara or Kast for this Sunday 14, remains a mystery.
Null and white. In the first round, there were 360,000 invalid votes, and this Sunday 780,000 (they went from 2.6% to 5.8%), while the blanks remained practically the same in one month: from 142,000 (1.06%) to 165,277 (1.23%). According to these figures, Parisi’s call for a blank vote did not bear fruit and his voters were divided between Kast and Jara. Dummies and blanks did not play the main role this election day.
Kast wins in all 15 regions. The Republican has established itself in all regions of the country, from the north to the south of the territory. In Arica, 62% compared to 37% in Jara. The same thing in Tarapacá. In Antofagasta, 56% Kast and 43% Jara. In Atacama, 54% and 45% respectively. In Coquimbo, 54%-45%, as in Valparaíso. In Santiago, where most of the population lives, Kast won by 53% to 46%, although Jara did best in the capital. In the Libertador Bernardo O’Higgins region, he obtained 60% to 39%. In Maule, it reached 66% against 33% for the left-wing candidate. The greatest national distance from Jara was reached in the Ñuble region, 69% compared to 30%. In organic, 63% against 36%. In La Araucanía, the Mapuche area, respectively 68% and 31%. Los Rios, 62%-37%. Los Lagos, 65%-34%. Aysén, 59%-40%. And Magallanes, in the far south, 55 to 44%.
The five largest municipalities. In Puente Alto, Chile’s largest municipality, south of Santiago, Jara beat Kast, 53% to 46%. In Maipú, in the western part of the capital, Jara also won with 52% to 47%. In Santiago Centro, Kast won by 53 to 46 percent. In the northern municipality of Antofagasta, Kast won by 54% to 45%. In the country’s fifth-largest municipality, La Florida, in the southeastern zone of Santiago, Jara won 50% to 49%.
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