Xinhua News Agency, Santiago, November 22. News Analysis: The balance of power game between the left and the right, the Chilean presidential election variables still exist
Xinhua News Agency reporter Yin Nan Zhang Xiaoran
According to the Chilean Electoral Commission’s statistics on 99.99% of the votes in the early morning of the 22nd, in the presidential and parliamentary elections on the 21st, none of the seven presidential candidates won more than 50% of the votes. The right-wing Chilean Republican candidate Jose Antonio Castel and the left-wing political party alliance “Pro-Dignity” coalition candidate Gabriel Boric received 27.91% and 25.83% of the votes. They will be held on December 19th. A tiebreaker in the second round of voting.
Analysts pointed out that this is the first time that the traditional center-left and center-right camps have been excluded from the presidential runoff since the Chilean military government “returned power to the people” in 1990. As the two candidates who won in the first round got close, there are many uncertainties about who will win the presidential election. The balance of power between the two candidates who belong to the two poles of the political spectrum will also become an important variable affecting the development of Chile’s political situation.
Both Castell and Boric are from emerging parties and are not traditional political forces. Custer, 55, was a former member of the House of Representatives. He advocates strict control of illegal immigration, adopts tough measures to ensure social security, and vigorously combat crimes. He also advocates streamlining government expenditures, reducing taxes, and removing laws and regulations that hinder investment and employment. Its series of policy propositions have attracted the support of conservative right-wing forces. Custer said after the first round of voting that he was “the only candidate to restore peace, combat criminals and drug trafficking, and end terrorism.”
Boric is 35 years old and was a leader of the student movement and a member of the House of Representatives. He advocated establishing a welfare society, changing the Chilean neoliberal development model, reforming the tax system, increasing taxes, abolishing the pension system managed by private companies, and realizing universal medical insurance. If elected, Boric will become the youngest president in Chile’s history.
Analysts pointed out that the two candidates mentioned above have completely different policy agendas. They belong to the polarities of the political spectrum. Custer is a conservative right-wing candidate, while Boric is a representative of the coalition of left-wing and ultra-left parties.
Since the military government “returned power to the people” in 1990, Chile’s center-left and center-right political forces have taken turns in power. However, because the policy guidelines failed to fully comply with the requirements of social change, public dissatisfaction has gradually accumulated. Some analysts pointed out that the results of the first round of the presidential election showed that Castell’s proposals for restoring social order and fighting crime won the support of voters who wish to improve public security under social turmoil, while Boric’s plan to reform the social welfare system catered to it. The wishes of young voters. Under normal circumstances, the candidate with the leading vote in the first round of the Chilean presidential election has a greater chance of winning in the second round. But the current vote gap between the two is relatively small, and the final outcome is still unpredictable.
Analysts here believe that although the two candidates who won in the first round were not from traditional political parties, they were supported by traditional political forces such as some center-right or left-wing major parties. No matter who will win in the end, they will face the issue of how to reach a reconciliation with other parties, including traditional parties. In order to win more voter support, the current policy propositions proposed by Custer and Boric may have certain changes accordingly.
Rene Hara, a scholar at the University of Santiago in Chile, said that although this is a polarized election, when observing the Chilean presidential election, it should be noted that the second round of voting will play a role in easing the candidate’s position.
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