Chileans are heading to the polls on Sunday for a presidential election, marking the first mandatory vote since 2012. Around 15–16 million citizens are eligible to vote, including a large number of first-time and younger voters.
Citizens who fail to vote without a valid excuse face fines.
The presidential election comes alongside a full renewal of the 155-member lower house of Congress and 23 of the 50 Senate seats. The outcome could reshape Chile’s legislative balance and influence future constitutional reforms.
The presidential race pits the governing leftist coalition against a field of right-wing and libertarian candidates. Leading the polls is Jeannette Jara of the Communist Party, representing the leftist coalition. Her campaign focuses on labor rights, security, and expanding Chile’s lithium and copper industries.
Right-wing candidates include José Antonio Kast, a former three-time presidential contender emphasizing immigration controls and security; Johannes Kaiser, a libertarian candidate advocating border closures, state spending cuts, and leaving the Paris Agreement; and Evelyn Matthei, a moderate conservative and former labor minister with a focus on economic and security issues.
Crime and immigration have emerged as key voter concerns in the campaign. Analysts note that younger voters are seen as unpredictable, less ideological, and more focused on practical issues.
The election follows a history of low voter turnout in Chile. In the first round of the 2021 presidential election, the abstention rate was 53 percent. The mandatory vote is intended to increase participation, particularly among younger generations.
Experts suggest that no candidate is expected to secure an outright majority, which is likely to trigger a run-off on 14 December. The legislative vote could also reshape Chile’s Congress. If right-wing candidates win the presidency and secure majorities in both chambers, it would mark the first time since the end of the Pinochet’s rule in 1990 that the right controls the executive and legislative branches, potentially enabling significant policy or constitutional changes.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has called for greater economic cooperation among Muslim countries, saying their combined economic weight remai...
A restaurant payment with a Visa card in Damascus has become a symbol of Syria’s reconnection with the global financial system....
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian has said that Tehran is ready to establish joint security arrangements...
Oil prices fell after the U.S. expanded economic sanctions on Iran, as Tehran vowed to retaliate and warned it had tools to respond, raising concerns over potential disruption to regional oil supplies.
Rescuers in Nepal used helicopters on Thursday to scour for hundreds still missing after a wall of mud and rock collapsed into a river on the Himalayan border with China's Tibet, sending catastrophic floods through towns and valleys, killing 162 people.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio told allied foreign ministers Washington will focus on sanctions and other pressure on Iran “for the time being”, Axios reports. Meanwhile, Iran and Oman have resumed talks on a temporary shipping route through the Strait of Hormuz.
Kyiv has recently received a small number of U.S.-made Patriot interceptors capable of downing Russian ballistic missiles, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said. It comes as Britain and France pledged stronger military support for Ukraine.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has called for greater economic cooperation among Muslim countries, saying their combined economic weight remains disproportionately small compared with their population, strategic location and resources.
Ratko Mladić, the former Bosnian Serb military commander convicted of genocide for his role in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, has died, according to a United Nations official.
A glacial collapse that triggered catastrophic flooding along the Nepal-Tibet border on Wednesday has killed at least 270 people, with more than 1,000 still missing. Here are some of the most devastating glacier-related disasters recorded around the world:
The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) says 3.7 million children across Afghanistan are suffering from acute wasting, a dangerous form of malnutrition, including around one million with severe acute malnutrition, as hospitals and aid services face rising demand and funding shortages.
Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has dismissed media reports that CIA Director John Ratcliffe visited Moscow earlier this week to warn Russia against attacking NATO, dismissing them as "scare stories," which had nothing to do with reality.
Icelanders will vote on Saturday, 29 August, on whether to resume negotiations with the European Union, in a referendum that could reopen the country’s long-debated membership question.
You can download the AnewZ application from Play Store and the App Store.
What is your opinion on this topic?
Leave the first comment