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Chileans vote for new president to correct transition period News

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Election elections are expected between the left and far-right candidates, but have not been given.

Antofagasta, Chile – Voting for a new president in Chile has begun in a critical election that will determine the government during the post-crisis transition.

Polls opened at 08:00 (11:00 GMT) and are scheduled to close on Sunday at 18:00 (21:00 GMT).

There are seven presidential candidates vote. The results are expected later on Sunday and the winner will be in power for a referendum on a new constitution that the electorate is currently writing.

The constitutional convention was a concession to mass protests against structural inequality in an explosion of social unrest that began two years ago.

Gabriel Boric, a 35-year-old congressman and former leader of the student movement, represents the left-wing Apruebo Dignidad coalition, and Jose Antonio Kast, a 55-year-old lawyer and congressman, is Christian’s far-right candidate. Social Front coalition.

Sebastian Sichel, the outgoing president of the administration of Sebastian Pine, a center-right alliance from the ruling alliance, and Yasna Provoste, a senator representing the center-left parties, rounded out Boric and Kast with a significant margin, along with three other candidates. .

No candidate is expected to get a full majority. The first two candidates will face off in the December 19 playoffs.

The President-elect will take office on March 11, 2022 for a four-year term.

“There will be a need to support this transition and this new constitution,” said Federica Sanchez Stania, a professor of political science at Alberto Hurtado University in Santiago and a member of the Red de Politologas network of women political scientists.

Voters are also electing 155 members of the lower house of Congress for four-year terms, 27 of the 50 senators and representatives of the county council.

Voting in Chile starts today at 8:00 local time (11:00 GMT) [Pablo Sanhueza/Reuters]

The streets in front of the local schools used as polling stations are closed to traffic, but few people voted in the first hour.

Many people opted to wait, unless a volunteer registered to be a staff member appears at a polling station, the first voter to enter is forced to take their place on the day and only the elderly can choose.

Gloria Alliu, 57, who owns a bakery, plans to vote later, but is still not 100 percent sure which candidate to run for president.

“A lot of people are undecided,” Alliuk told Al Jazeera. “There is no candidate who meets all my interests.”

Alliu said equality, poverty, employment and people’s rights are important for him and that he will discuss with others to decide today.

“No one is sure what the results will be,” Sanchez Stania said. “It’s very difficult to predict.”

The December getaway between Boric and Kast seems like the surest result but there is always a chance of a surprise, Sanchez Stania said.

The polls are being investigated and Kast did wrong in the last discussion, he noted.

“I think that turnout is likely to be average,” Sanchez Stania added, adding that in the previous two presidential elections, since the mandatory vote was removed, turnout is expected to be between 43 and 48 percent.

“The general behavior of the Chilean electorate is not happening.”



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