With 10.89% of the votes counted, Mr Cast had received 29.3% of the ballots, compared to 23.61% for his main rival, leftist Gabriel Borik.
Right-wing former Congressman Jose Antonio Cast, who has promised tough crackdown on crime, reached an early lead on Sunday evening in Chile’s most divisive presidential election since the country’s return to democracy in 1990.
With 10.89% of the votes counted, Mr Cast had received 29.3% of the ballots, compared to 23.61% for his main rival, leftist Gabriel Borik. If this trend continues, it will mean that both the candidates will face each other for the second round run-off in December.
Long lines developed at many polling stations amid coronavirus-related social distancing protocols and relatively high turnout. Many polling places remained open after the expected closing time of 6 p.m. to accommodate voters, many of whom had been waiting for more than two hours in the nearly 90 Fahrenheit (31 Celsius) heat.
Mr Cast, 55, a Catholic and father of nine children, has praised the neo-liberal “economic legacy” of former dictator Augusto Pinochet.
His outspokenness, conservatism and sometimes silly policy ideas, such as digging a trench to stop illegal immigration, have drawn frequent comparisons with former US President Donald Trump and Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro.
On the left, Mr Boric, a 35-year-old legislator who led student protests demanding reform of Chile’s education system in 2011, pledged to dismantle the country’s laissez-faire economic model while protecting the environment and strengthening indigenous rights Is. Broadly speaking, he represents a significant breakdown from the conservative to centrist policies that have dominated Chilean politics for decades.
“For me, the most important thing is that we establish a country where people have rights,” said 54-year-old lawyer Romario DeLuca while waiting in line to vote for Mr Boric in central Santiago.
“Personal rights, housing, healthcare, no matter what your income.”
The election comes after two years of dramatic protests by Chileans demanding improvements in their quality of life. The demonstrations helped bring about a continued rewriting of the country’s Pinochet-era constitution and propelled the candidacy of Mr Boric, who held a comfortable lead for most of the race.
But growing fatigue among Chileans fed up with political violence, coupled with the widespread belief that crime is on the rise, has fueled Mr. Cast.
Mr Cast won the most votes by a few percentage points on Sunday in most polls, while a potential runoff in December will be extremely competitive.
“He’s going to defeat the narco-trafficking that’s causing so much damage to our country,” Gloria Reyes Flores, a 66-year-old widower in the upscale Santiago district of Las Condes, said of the right-wing candidate. “He’s also going to control immigration because there are a lot of immigrants who are coming to harm Chile.”
A wild card would be the performance of more liberal candidates. Center-right Sebastian Sichel and centre-left Yasna Provost are both voting between 10% and 15%, at least 10 percentage points behind Mr. Cast and Mr. Boric. But surveyors say a surprise is still possible, as millions of voters are undecided.
Barring a shocking result, Mr. Cast and Mr. Boric will scramble to take on Sichel and Provost voters in the second round on 19 December, making the more liberal contenders potential kingmakers.
If either of the two leading candidates manages to garner 2 million votes, said Kenneth Bunker, director of political consultancy Trescintos, it could be a good indicator that he has expanded his base enough to win the final second round. extended from.
In addition, Chile holds all 155 seats in the lower house, 27 of the 50 seats in the country’s upper house, and all positions in the country’s 16 regional councils.
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