Kast vs Jara: Chile votes in polarising presidential run-off

Chileans gear up to cast their ballots in run-off election, with far-right candidate Jose Kast gaining ground in polls.

Chileans are voting in a closely watched presidential election run-off on Sunday, after pre-poll surveys showed far-right opposition candidate Jose Antonio Kast leading over his centre-left rival, Jeannette Jara.

Kast, who considers United States President Donald Trump a role model, has made crime and undocumented migration a centrepiece of his campaign. He has promised to launch mass deportations and initiate a sweeping law-and-order agenda as part of his rhetoric to “Make Chile Great Again”.

Jara, the candidate for the governing left-wing coalition, was narrowly ahead of Kast in the first round last month. The 51-year-old had garnered nearly 27 percent of the vote against Kast, in second place with 24 percent of the votes.

Kast, the 59-year-old Republican Party leader, has been able to mobilise the votes of the defeated opponents from the right-wing camp, making him the favourite going into Sunday’s run-off. Right-wing candidates had collectively secured about 70 percent of the votes in the November 16 polls.

Analysts fear Kast’s victory could change the country’s political course for the first time since a return to democracy 35 years ago. Chileans have long prided themselves on keeping far-right politics at bay after the end of the military government of Augusto Pinochet in the 1970s and 80s. In his youth, Kast was a keen supporter of Pinochet.

Rollback of women’s rights

Yet frustration runs deep among voters, many of whom feel unrepresented by either finalist.

Many voters say they cannot bring themselves to vote for Jara, who is a member of Chile’s orthodox Communist Party.

Jara, who served as labour minister under incumbent President Gabriel Boric, helped pass flagship welfare reforms but has struggled to shift the debate. She now pledges tougher border controls and stronger policing. Still, analysts say her communist background limits her appeal.

Leonidas Monte of the Centre for Political Studies said Chileans judge candidates largely on rejection rates, adding that “somebody from the Communist Party will be with a 50 percent or above rejection”.

Jara says she will resign from the Communist Party if she wins, but that has not convinced some voters.

Questions also surround whether Kast could deliver on his most ambitious pledges.

He has promised to cut $6bn in public spending within 18 months without touching social benefits, deport more than 300,000 undocumented migrants and expand the army’s role