2021 Chilean general election
General elections were held in Chile on 21 November 2021, including presidential, parliamentary and regional elections. Voters went to the polls to elect the President of the Republic to serve a four-year term, 27 of 50 members of the Senate to serve an eight-year term in the National Congress, all 155 members of the Chamber of Deputies to serve a four-year term in the National Congress, and all 302 members of the regional boards to serve a three-year term.[a] Following an electoral reform in 2015, the Senate increased its membership from 38 to 43 in 2017 and grew to its full size of 50 seats after this election.[1]
Despite narrowly trailing behind conservative candidate José Antonio Kast in the first round of the presidential election, leftist candidate Gabriel Boric emerged as the winner of the second round with 55.87% of the vote. This margin was larger than what was predicted by pre-election polls.[2] Kast conceded defeat shortly after the polls closed.[3][4] At the age of 35, Boric became the youngest president ever elected in Chile and also set a record for receiving the highest number of votes in Chilean history. The turnout in the second round increased to 55.7%, which was the highest since voting became voluntary in Chile in 2013.
For the parliamentary election, the center-right coalition Chile Podemos Más kept its position as the largest bloc in both chambers and even increased their number of senators, despite losing more than 10 percentage points from the previous election. In the left wing, the new coalition Apruebo Dignidad had important gains at the expense of the center-left New Social Pact (NPS), becoming the second largest bloc in the Chamber of Deputies. However, NPS kept more seats in the Senate. New parties, such as the far-right Republican Party and the populist Party of the People, also gained several seats. Consequently, the newly elected Congress was split evenly between the combined left and right,[b] with the non-aligned congresspeople holding the balance of power.[6]
On 11 March 2022 all the newly elected authorities, including president-elect Boric, took office.[7]
Analysis[edit]
The 2021 Chilean election cycle was notable for its polarization, representing a departure from the country's political normality. Against the backdrop of the 2019 protests, the writing of a new constitution, and the COVID-19 pandemic,[8] the dominant center-left and center-right coalitions that had ruled the country since the end of the military dictatorship experienced a significant drop in support in the elections for mayors, governors, and members of the Constitutional Convention held on May 15 and 16.
In the subsequent presidential election, candidates from the traditional centrist coalitions finished in fourth and fifth place, while two candidates from newly formed parties and coalitions, Kast and Boric, qualified for the second round.[9] This represented a departure from the country's political history, which had repeatedly seen power bounce between center-right and center-left parties with little structural movement between presidents.
The desire for change among voters led them to reject the traditional political parties and support candidates from new parties. Kast of the far-right Republican Party ran a campaign on populist and Christian conservative values, emphasizing "law and order" and drawing comparisons with former US president Donald Trump and Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro.[10] In contrast, Boric, a member of the left-wing Apruebo Dignidad coalition, campaigned on a progressive message reflecting the ideas behind the 2019 protests. He advocated for broadening the social safety net, higher taxes on the wealthy, combating climate change, social justice, and change to the current privatized pension system. Boric also supported the ongoing writing of a new Chilean constitution, while Kast repeatedly said he would interfere to stop its ratification if elected.
Presidential candidates[edit]
Public transport inefficiency[edit]
On the day of the second round on 19 December, voters at bus stops in rural parts of the country, and large municipalities in the Santiago Metropolitan Region, such as Puente Alto, San Bernardo, and Maipú, waited hours for public bus services in the blazing sun to reach their polling stations, due to a shortage of public bus services available on that day.
Soon after these reports came in, local authorities and citizens in these municipalities took to social media to show Red Metropolitana de Movilidad bus terminals and parking decks full of unused city buses. This led to speculation that the incumbent government was suppressing voters by reducing bus services to prevent them from casting their votes. Apparently, most complaints of delays came from neighborhoods where Gabriel Boric had stronger levels of support.
Leading figures from Boric's campaign, such as Izkia Siches cried foul, accusing the government of trying to help Kast win the election. Boric said "the government has a responsibility" to solve the problem to allow voters to be ferried to vote with the unused buses. The elections authority Servel expressed similar concerns to Transport Minister Gloria Hutt.[128]
The government spokesman Jaime Bellolio called the Boric campaign's claim as a "blatant lie", and denied that the government was suppressing voters, claiming that there were between 5,000 and 6,000 buses running in the Metropolitan Region. However, this was contradicted by transport authorities, which stated that only 3,000 buses were operating. The transport authority however, also stressed that the number of buses was 55 percent more than a usual Sunday and between 3 percent or 4 percent greater than on the first round of election in November.[129]
A Transantiago bus driver claimed that only 40 percent of the bus drivers available were driving that day, despite statements from the government that they were operating buses on a normal work schedule. As a result, carpools were organized through social media, while private services like Uber and Cabify offered ride discounts for voters to travel to polling stations.[130]
In the evening, just before polls closed, Transport Minister Gloria Hutt apologized, acknowledging the government was slow to react to the situation and blamed the delays on road work and traffic, but denied that the government was engaging in voter suppression.[130]
Results[edit]
President[edit]
Turnout for the second round rose by 1.2 million from the first round, and from 47.3% in the first round to 55.6%, the highest level for any Chilean election since voting ceased to be compulsory in 2012.[131]
Gabriel Boric won the election with 55.9% of the vote and is set to become the youngest president in Chile's history and youngest state leader in the world.[132][133]
A post-election survey showed that despite their endorsement of Kast, 59% of Parisi's voters and 23% of Sichel's voters voted for Boric, while 82% of Yasna Provoste's supporters, 83% of Marco Enríquez-Ominami's supporters, and 92% of Eduardo Artés's supporters voted for Boric.[134]
