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Chilean leftist Gabriel Boric won the country’s presidential run-off election on Sunday, capping a major revival for the country’s progressive left that has been on the rise since widespread protests roiled the Andean country two years ago.
In downtown Santiago, supporters cheered, embraced and waved flags with Mr Boric’s image, as well as rainbow flags of LGBT groups that have backed his socially inclusive policies as well as plans to overhaul Chile’s market-orientated economic model.
“We did it!” Paola Fernandez (39) said tearfully as she hugged her daughter, adding she was happy because of Mr Boric’s progressive policies.
With over 99 per cent of ballots counted, Mr Boric (35), who leads a broad leftist coalition, had 55.86 per cent of the vote, compared with 44.14 per cent for far-right rival Jose Antonio Kast, who conceded defeat.
“I just spoke to @gabrielboric and congratulated him on his great success,” Mr Kast said on Twitter. “From today he is the elected president of Chile and he deserves all our respect and constructive collaboration. Chile is always first.”
The protests in 2019 shone a spotlight on economic inequality and triggered an official redraft of the constitution.
“I am going to be the president of all Chileans,” Mr Boric said in a call with centre-right president Sebastian Pinera, who will step down in March.
Lucrecia Cornejo (72), a seamstress, backed Mr Boric’s pledge to fix inequalities in education, pensions and healthcare.
“I want equality, for us not to be as they call us, the ‘broken ones’, more fairness in education, health and salaries,” she said. “I want real change.”
The election was the nation’s most divisive in decades, with the two candidates offering starkly different visions of the future. Mr Kast ran a law-and-order campaign and was a defender of former dictator Augusto Pinochet.
Often likened to Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro and a hero of Chile’s “unapologetic right”, Mr Kast has said that “two models for the nation” were going head-to-head.
Both candidates were from outside the centrist political mainstream that has ruled Chile since the return to democracy in 1990 after Pinochet’s military dictatorship. Both moderated their positions in recent weeks to win over centrist voters.
Miguel Angel Lopez, a professor at the University of Chile, said Mr Boric faced a complex period ahead and would have to negotiate with the opposition due to a split Congress where neither side has a majority.
“He now has to make a strong speech where he tries to end the uncertainty. Lots will depend on that and on his appointments and his decisions. International investors will be very attentive to this.”
Mr Boric supporters say he will overhaul the country’s economic model that dates back to Pinochet. It has been credited for driving economic growth, but attacked for creating sharp divides between rich and poor. – Reuters