SANTIAGO, Chile — Chileans on Sunday gave the lead in the country’s presidential race to a far-right politician, a stunning development in a nation that has been rattled by political and social protest over inequality and the rising cost of living.
With more than 88 percent of the vote counted, José Antonio Kast, a conservative lawyer and former lawmaker who promised to restore security and order and to dramatically reduce the size of the state, had carved out a three-point lead over his leftist rival, Gabriel Boric. The two will face off in a runoff on Dec. 19.
“Today we took the first step to turn hope into reality,” Mr. Kast told supporters Sunday night outside his campaign headquarters in an upscale Santiago neighborhood. “Chile deserves peace. Chile deserves liberty.
The race followed an unusually turbulent period in the South American nation, which has been governed for decades by centrist parties and had, until recently, been regarded as one of the region’s most stable and prosperous democracies.
Chile’s departing president narrowly dodged impeachment this month. A month earlier, the army was deployed to the south to confront an increasingly violent uprising by Indigenous militants. And since July, delegates in the capital have been drafting a new Constitution, prompted by sweeping protests in 2019 over inequality and the rising cost of living.
This tumultuous period, made still more unsettled by the coronavirus pandemic, set the stage for the first round of an unusually polarized presidential election on Sunday. The centrist coalitions that have traded power in recent decades were underdogs in a race led by more radical candidates offering Chileans starkly opposed visions for the future.
Chile’s election is among several in Latin America in which incumbents and governing parties are on the defensive, partly because of the upheaval and economic pain the pandemic has inflicted. Foremost are next year’s presidential contests in Brazil and Colombia, where the virus has killed hundreds of thousands of people and crippled large segments of their economies.
“Covid exposed inequalities, it exacerbated inequalities and made it easy to politicize those inequalities in a way that we expect will be very hard on incumbents,” said Jennifer Pribble, a political science professor at the University of Richmond who specializes in Latin America. “It has generated malaise and discontent that citizens have to put on someone.”
The leading candidates vying to replace President Sebastián Piñera — who is not eligible for re-election — are on opposite sides of the political spectrum. Mr. Boric, a leftist lawmaker, promises to vastly expand the safety net, and Mr. Kast, a far-right former congressman, proposes a drastically leaner state in which the security forces are given broader authority to quell violence and disorder.
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