MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Strong conservative comeback seems certain in Chile’s November presidential election

Jeannette Jara, the candidate of the current ruling catch-all left wing coalition, and Jose Antonio Kast the hopeful most certain to win the run off according to current public opinion polls

With less than a month and a half to Chile’s presidential election, public opinion polls are indicating that the incumbent candidate of the ruling left wing coalition, Jeantnette Jara is leading, but with only 27% of vote intention. However the main opposition hopeful, Jose Antonio Kast from the Conservative Party is very close with 25% vote intention.

Other candidates include Evelyn Matthei, and Johannes Kaiser, with 16% and 11% vote intention respectively, also belonging to party organizations that are very critical of the current president Gabriel Boric and this catch-all left wing coalition.

Since 2023 voting in Chile is no longer voluntary but compulsory, and the polls are showing that those voters who must now cast a ballot prefer Kast with 27%, while ladies Jara and Matthei are almost in a draw with 18% and 17%.

And since a run off seems almost certain in such a polarized environment, the incumbent candidate Ms Jara, belonging to the Chilean Communist party and former Labor minister of President Boric’s cabinet, is expected to be defeated by Kast 49% to 32% and 46% to 30% if running against Ms Matthei, the daughter of a former Air Force member of the military Junta , led by Augusto Pinochet and which ruled Chile for almost two decades.

The Panel-Ciudadano poll was done October 2nd and 3rd involving 1.821 persons with a 2 to 3% error margin.