Criticism for lack of public transport and traffic jams to go to vote in Chile

Overflowing urban bus stops in different parts of the country and kilometric traffic jams in Santiago mark the electoral day in Chile, which this Sunday elects the successor of Sebastián Piñera between the left-wing deputy Gabriel Boric and the lawyer José Antonio Kast.

In the peripheral towns of Puente Alto, Maipú, La Florida or San Miguel, citizens reported the local media waits of up to two hours to get on the bus.

“It is the last straw that older people have to wait so long in the sun, with this heat“Pensioner Mariana Vargas told EFE in the central neighborhood of La Reina.

Criticism also came from the electoral teams of both candidates, who encouraged citizens to share their cars and lead their neighbors to vote in these crucial and uncertain elections, in which the two candidates face the most disparate proposals since the return to democracy in 1990.

“It is a day when we all have to collaborate. We are interested in getting the majority of people to voteKast said.

According to Boric, “there are sectors where there is less than 50% of the public transport working ”:“ Later we will see the responsibilities, the important thing now is to guarantee the vote”.

The label #SueltenLasMicros was for hours the most shared on social networks in Chile, as a collective request to the Government to bring more vehicles into circulation.

The Minister of Transport, Gloria Hutt, acknowledged the problem and assured that she was making “every effort to mitigate it as quickly as possible.”

“There are congestion episodes in some important axes, and this affects the fluidity of public transport routes when there is no exclusive route, with which there are waiting times that have increased“Said the official at a press conference.

“We deny those who are trying to install a fake about the size of a cathedral by saying that something has not been done so that people can go to vote. We have 75% more buses than a normal Sunday”, Added the government spokesman, Jaime Bellolio.

The latest polls agree that Boric would win the ballot with between 5 and 14 points of advantage, although experts affirm that the outlook is very uncertain given the narrow margin between the two candidates in the first round (2 percentage points) and the possible high abstention .

While Boric defends a welfare state with a feminist and environmentalist accent, Kast is a fervent 55-year-old Catholic who seeks to maintain the current neoliberal model with slight changes, lower taxes and tackle irregular migration with a heavy hand.

Among the main challenges for the future will be to channel the social crisis that continues to exist since the 2019 protests; to lead the implementation of the norms of the new Constitution -in case they are approved in an exit plebiscite-, and to face the economic challenges left by the pandemic.