José Antonio Kast obtained an advantage at the polls of more than 16 points over the communist candidate Jeannette Jara.
LIMA, Peru – The second round of presidential elections in Chile concluded this Sunday with the victory of the right-wing candidate José Antonio Kast, who won against the communist Jeannette Jara.
As reported The CountryAfter counting more than 98% of the votes, Kast obtained an advantage of more than 16 points over the leftist candidate, taking 58.21% of the votes.
The former Minister of Labor of the Government of Gabriel Boric recognized the defeat and sent a message to the winner of the polls.
“Democracy spoke loud and clear. I just contacted the president-elect José Antonio Kast to wish him success for the good of Chile,” Jara wrote through X (formerly Twitter).
Kast’s victory ends four years of the left in power. Although Jara defeated Kast in the first round with 26.6 percent of the votes against his opponent’s 23.9 percent, analysts and polls indicated that the right could win by gathering support from other conservative candidates.
“I want you to know that as president of the Republic I will always be available to collaborate for the country,” Boric told the winner of the elections on national television.
The inauguration of José Antonio Kast will not take place on March 11, 2026. Regarding it, the Republican expressed his desire for it to be a “respectful” and “very orderly” transition.
The candidates for the presidency in Chile
José Antonio Kast is trained as a lawyer in Chile and has been founder and leader of the Republican Party. He was a deputy between 2001 and 2017 and was a presidential candidate in several elections prior to his victory this Sunday, establishing himself as the main figure of the conservative right in his country.
Throughout his political career to date, Kast is known for his advocacy of traditional values, free markets, public safety and social order.
His victory in the current elections represents one of the most marked shifts to the right since the end of the dictatorship in 1990. His electoral victory was marked by strong support for security policies, migration and liberalizing economic reforms.
For her part, Jeannette Jara developed her career mainly in the workplace and public administration. She achieved high national visibility by serving as Minister of Labor and Social Security during the Boric government (2022–2024), a position from which she became one of the most recognized figures of the left-wing ruling party.
Jara is one of the leaders of the Communist Party of Chile and that position was one of the main sources of controversy in the national political debate during her electoral campaign.
Center-right and right-wing sectors presented her as a representative of an ideology associated, at the international level, with authoritarian regimes, nationalized economies and restrictions on individual freedoms.
In his speech and interventions in the media, Jara has avoided making an explicit and systematic condemnation of the regimes of Cuba, Venezuela or Nicaragua.
