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Chile Votes Sunday Under Mandatory Voting as Tight Race Points to December Runoff

Mandatory voting returns for the first time since 2012, injecting uncertainty into turnout.

Overview

  • About 16 million citizens must vote or face fines, a sharp change from the high abstention seen in 2021.
  • Polls put Jeannette Jara ahead with José Antonio Kast her most likely rival, and surveys suggest she would trail a united right in a Dec. 14 runoff.
  • Jara campaigns on higher minimum wages, stronger labor rights, police modernization and new prisons, and a bigger role for Codelco in lithium.
  • Kast centers immigration and security with mass deportations and maximum-security prisons, while libertarian Johannes Kaiser shows a late bump with border closures and deep state cuts.
  • All 155 lower-house seats and 23 of 50 Senate seats are also on the ballot, creating the possibility of right-wing control of Congress and four-sevenths majorities for constitutional changes as mining groups press for faster environmental permits.