Chile: Gabriel Boric elected president, the far-right candidate recognizes his defeat

Rarely has the ballot been so close in Chile.

But the suspense stopped at 11:26 pm this Sunday.

Far-right candidate Antonio Kast officially recognized the victory of the representative of the progressive left Gabriel Boric.

“I just spoke to Gabriel Boric and congratulated him on his great triumph.

He is today the elected president of Chile and deserves our respect and our constructive collaboration.

Chile always comes first, ”Antonio Kast wrote on his official Twitter account.

Gabriel Boric is ahead of him by 10 points, with 55% of the vote against 45% in the nearly 70% of the polling stations where the ballots were counted.

Acabo de hablar con @gabrielboric y lo he felicitado por su gran triunfo.

Desde hoy es el Presidente electo de Chile y merece todo nuestro respeto y colaboración constructiva.

Chile siempre está primero 🇨🇱✌️ pic.twitter.com/AvpBKs0GFT

- José Antonio Kast Rist 🇨🇱 (@joseantoniokast) December 19, 2021

Polling stations closed at 9:00 p.m. GMT on Sunday. There was only to wait which of the two candidates with diametrically opposed plans for society would be president. The count, traditionally well organized in Chile, revealed a close race. The finalists of this second round to designate the successor of Sebastian Piñera were neck and neck as in the last polls, for this duel unprecedented since the return to democracy in 1990.

The 15 of the 19 million Chileans called to the polls mostly moved in the morning, a heat wave hitting their country, with more than 35 degrees recorded in the capital Santiago.

The candidate of the progressive left, Gabriel Boric, will await the result in the center of Santiago where a big party is planned in case of victory.

José Antonio Kast, for the far right, will for his part unite his supporters in an upscale neighborhood in the east of the capital.

"Accept defeat"

Gabriel Boric, Member of Parliament since 2014, leads a left-wing coalition with the Communist Party.

He presented himself as the candidate for change and the political heir of the 2019 movement for more social justice in the most unequal country of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Aged 35, the minimum age to run, the former leader of a student movement in 2011 was not expected in the final sprint just a few months ago.

Miren qué linda the photo that our mandarons, Inés Erazo has known 103 años fue a votar.

Ya están cerrando las mesas, the invitamos to esperar los resultados con tranquilidad.

Seguimos!

pic.twitter.com/KpCyOw88Xw

- Gabriel Boric Font (@gabrielboric) December 19, 2021

"It is possible to make a Chile more human, more dignified, more egalitarian", declared the one who wants to transform it into a "welfare state" after having voted in his hometown of Punta Arenas, in the far south, on the Strait of Magellan. “If we lose, we will recognize it (…) We will respect the result, whatever it is, without installing the veil of doubt. But we are going to win and expect reciprocal recognition from our opponent, ”he added.

He was referring to fears that José Antonio Kast might challenge the validity of the electoral process, like former US President Donald Trump, whom he says he admires as much as Brazil's Jair Bolsanoro.

He didn't in the end.

He had however announced that in case of defeat, he could not recognize the result of the election if the difference between the two candidates was less than 50,000 votes.