Chileans voted this Sunday, November 21, in the most uncertain presidential elections since the end of the dictatorship in 1990, with two favorite candidates in antagonistic positions.
Despite the fact that the tables closed at 6:00 pm local time (21:00 GMT), there were still long lines of voters waiting to vote in the fourth elections held since October 2020, when the plebiscite to define the change was held. to the Constitution inherited from Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990).
In these elections, a shift in the economic and political model is at stake that brought stability and economic prosperity, but also opened gaps of social inequality for which millions of Chileans rose in the strong protests of two years ago.
The young left-wing deputy, Gabriel Boric, and the far-right lawyer, José Antonio Kast, appear as favorites, according to polls published 15 days ago, since an electoral ban has been in force.
Boric, 35, the minimum age to run for the presidency of Chile, proposes a change to the neoliberal economic model, while Kast, 55, promises to restore order and security after two turbulent years.
Long lines of voters were observed in several colleges, while the term of operation of the tables was fulfilled. “If there are voters with the intention of voting, the table must receive the vote of all of them before proceeding with the closing of the vote,” recalled the Servel (Electoral Service), on a particularly hot southern spring day, with more than 30 Celsius degrees.
In Chile, voting has been voluntary since 2012 and foreigners with more than five years of residence in the country can vote. There is usually a low electoral turnout, especially among young people.
“You have to come and vote to turn this page of division and trouble in the streets,” Cristina Arellano, a 42-year-old accountant at a school in Ñuñoa, a middle-class commune in the capital, told AFP.
The young people, protagonists of the plebiscite that decided to change the Constitution inherited from the Pinochet dictatorship with 78% of the votes -process currently underway-, were seen in large numbers at the polling stations.
“You have to vote; the country needs changes, we are bored with the same politicians, but with these ranks and this disorganization it seems that they want us not to vote, ”Felipe Rojas, a 24-year-old student, complained to AFP.
