Chile’s conservative presidential candidate rises in polls

Conservative candidate José Antonio Kast advanced to a statistical tie with Gabriel Boric in one poll and closed in on the left-wing contender in another, one month before the presidential election.

Kast, who is running for the Republican Party of Chile, received 21% support in a poll by local pollster Cadem published on Sunday, while Boric received 20%. The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.7 percentage points.

A Pulso Ciudadano poll released Monday showed the right-wing candidate with 16.3% of voting intentions, while the former student leader received 21.3%. The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.4 percentage points.

Kast’s advance has surprised many in a country whose local politics have taken a sharp turn to the left in recent years. However, considering the division in the poll results, it is likely that on November 21, none of the candidates will be able to get the 50% of the votes necessary to avoid a second round.

The coalition headed by the current president, Sebastián Piñera, is currently facing problems gaining support and staying in power.

The Chilean peso led the gains in emerging markets during morning trading on Monday, rising 0.3% to 821.72 per dollar.

Lower taxes

Boric, who until recently was the clear favorite, has declined from 25% in mid-September, according to the Cadem poll. That has given a window to Kast, who has called for lowering taxes and reducing the size of government, and whose comments on abortion and homosexuality have made him a champion of social conservatism.

Boric’s coalition opposes free market policies that have helped Chile attract more foreign investment as a percentage of gross domestic product than other Latin American countries, but at the expense of great economic inequality. The level of disapproval of Piñera, a billionaire economist, reaches 79% in the Cadem poll.

Kast’s rapid rise in the polls comes as his center-right competitor, Sebastián Sichel, loses popularity, to now rank fourth, according to both polls.

Support for Sichel fell from 24% in early August to 7% in Sunday’s poll, partly due to the revelation that he had withdrawn savings from his pension fund despite criticizing a bill that aimed to free up more. retirement money for Chileans. The Pulso Ciudadano survey indicates that it received 7.5% of the voting intentions.

If no candidate gets more than 50% of the votes in the first round, a second round will take place on December 19.

The Cadem survey interviewed 706 adults by phone between October 13-14 with a 95% confidence rating. The Pulso Ciudadano poll surveyed 1,632 people online between October 12-15, with a 95% confidence rating.