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Hardline conservative José Antonio Kast has won a big victory in Chile’s presidential election, as concern over crime and immigration pull one of Latin America’s wealthiest countries to the right.
With 95.2 per cent of ballots counted, Kast, a former lawmaker who wants to build a barrier on Chile’s northern border and deport undocumented migrants, has won 58.3 per cent of the vote, according to Chile’s electoral service.
Jeannette Jara, a member of Chile’s Communist party representing the ruling leftwing coalition, scored 41.7 per cent. Jara on Sunday night conceded defeat.
Kast will be Chile’s most rightwing president in 35 years of democracy when he takes office in March. He has spent the past decade preaching a severe law and order and anti-immigrant message after splitting from the country’s mainstream conservative bloc in 2016.
Kast’s ideas have resonated with many Chileans in recent years as an unprecedented wave of organised crime has shaken the country. Foreign gangs from Venezuela and elsewhere in Latin America have settled there for the first time in the wake of the pandemic.
While Chile remains one of the region’s safest nations, the murder rate has more than doubled since 2015.
Teresa Galarce, a make-up artist in Santiago, said on Sunday that she was “hopeful” a Kast government would be able to improve security.
“You watch the news and there’s always someone killed, carjackings,” she said. “That didn’t used to happen here.”
The security crisis has coincided with a big influx of immigration from crisis-stricken Venezuela, with the number of undocumented migrants in Chile tripling since 2021 to 330,000. Polls show immigration ranks as voters’ second biggest concern after security.
Kast has repeatedly warned all illegal migrants in Chile to exit before he takes office, saying in a video on social media last month that those who do not will be detained and deported.
Earlier this month, neighbouring Peru declared a state of emergency in anticipation of Kast’s statements triggering a migrant crisis on its border, though local media report that flows of people across its border have so far been modest.
As well as his pledges on border security and mass deportations, Kast has pledged to crack down on gangs by beefing up security forces and toughening jail sentences and conditions.
He has also promised to slash regulation and taxes to combat a slowdown in economic growth.
Rightwing parties are close to a majority in both houses of congress, though analysts say some of Kast’s most radical proposals may be watered down, including a pledge to cut $6bn of public spending in 18 months.
Kast, a devout Catholic and father of nine, once campaigned to roll back Chile’s limited legal abortion legislation. He has also praised Chile’s former dictator Augusto Pinochet. However, he has largely sidelined culture war issues from this campaign.
His election seals a dramatic shift in Chile’s political direction since 2019, when mass protests over the cost of living and anger at elites triggered a national debate over a market-based economic model and two failed efforts to rewrite the constitution.
Current leftwing president Gabriel Boric defeated Kast in a 2021 run-off election on a pledge of radical economic reform to combat inequality. His approval ratings have been battered by the crime wave and he has struggled to pass many reforms.
Jara served as labour minister in Boric’s government. She joined Chile’s Communist party at age 14, and was representing a coalition of hard and centre-left parties.
Patricio Navia, a Chilean political analyst, said the result was a bruising defeat for the country’s hard left and “an indisputable mandate” for Kast.
“But I hope Kast does not think his mandate is to impose radical rightwing views,” he added. “Chileans don’t want more radicalism from the right or the left.”
Additional reporting by John Bartlett in Santiago