Overview
- Polling stations closed Sunday under mandatory voting for roughly 15.6 million citizens, with long queues reported before counting began.
- Communist candidate Jeannette Jara led pre‑vote surveys for the first round yet is projected by aggregated polls to fall behind a consolidated right or far right in a potential runoff.
- José Antonio Kast and libertarian Johannes Kaiser gained support with hardline security and anti‑immigration proposals, weakening traditional right candidate Evelyn Matthei.
- Public safety dominated as officials cite homicides rising from about 2.5 to around 6 per 100,000 over a decade and kidnappings up 76% since 2021, with attention on transnational crime.
- Voters also renewed the entire lower house and half the Senate in a contest viewed as a regional bellwether for the left after recent conservative advances.