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Chile in expectation: This Sunday will be one of the most momentous elections in the country

Tomorrow the most decisive elections for the future of the country will be held since the 1988 plebiscite that removed Augusto Pinochet from power.

Chile holds its breath this Saturday in the day prior to the presidential elections most momentous of the last 30 years, in which they will face to relieve the conservative Sebastián Piñera, the former left-wing student leader Gabriel Boric and the far-right José Antonio Kast.

In the streets, in public transport or on the terraces of a summer Chile there is no talk of anything other than this vote, which according to experts is the most decisive for the future of the country since the 1988 plebiscite that Augusto Pinochet power.

More of 15 million people are called to go to one of the 2,500 polling stations on Sunday, which as of today are guarded by the security forces, as explained by the Minister of the Interior, Rodrigo Delgado.

Expectation for elections in Chile

Yearning to avoid abstentionism

The latest polls agree that Boric would win the ballot with between 5 and 14 points of advantage, although the experts affirm that the panorama is very uncertain taking into account the narrow margin between the two candidates in the first round -2 percentage points-.

To this is added that the participation of the last vote was only of the 47% and that according to the latest forecasts, released on December 4 – the last day the law allows polls to be published – there is a large percentage of undecided.

According to the pollster Cadem, a quarter of the Chileans in the census your preference is still not clear or he won’t go to the polls.

During the day, Kast remained reserved and Boric made a call to participate from Magallanes, his native land, to the extreme south of the country.

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“We need them. There are projects that are very different at stake (…) and hope must win over fear, ”he said.

A pair of antagonistic models

The one that was the country for decades most stable in Latin America You must choose between two candidates who have proposals under their arms more drastic than those of the large center-right and center-left blocs that shared power since the return to democracy in 1990.

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35-year-old deputy and leader of an alliance between the Broad Front and the Communist Party, Boric has a program that points towards a welfare state European-like, with a feminist and environmentalist accent.

He is the candidate for “profound changes” in the field of pensions, education and health, and represents the part of Chilean society that participated in the massive protests for equality of 2019, María Cristina Escudero, a political scientist at the University of Chile, told Efe.

Elections in Chile: José Antonio Kast and Gabriel Boric seek support from the vast majority that did not vote for them

Meanwhile, Kast, a fervent Catholic and leader of the far-right Republican Party, is supporter of defending the current model with slight changes, based on the neoliberalism installed during the military dictatorship (1973-1990).

Contrary to equal marriage, abortion and advocate digging a ditch on the border To prevent the passage of irregular migrants, Kast has declared himself a fan of Jair Bolsonaro and Donald Trump.

He is part of a family clan that had close ties to the Pinochet dictatorship and his promises of “order and security” led him to be the most voted candidate during the first round in November, with 27.9% support.

Wounds of the social crisis open

The next president, who will take office in March 2022 for a period of 4 years, must sew the wounds left by the social crisis of 2019, a wave of massive protests for equality that left some thirty dead and put the current government and the security forces in check.

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He will also lead the implementation of the norms of the new Constitution that began to be drafted this year and that could enter into force in 2022 if approved in an exit plebiscite.

Another of the most urgent challenges will be serving the needs of a struggling working class after the pandemic and which ends this year social assistance, in addition to facing an inflation not seen in decades. (I)

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