Chile is preparing for this Sunday's presidential runoff, with far-right José Antonio Kast as the clear favorite and left-wing Jeannette Jara waiting to reverse the pessimistic forecasts against her. More than 15.7 million Chileans will choose on Sunday the successor to progressive Gabriel Boric in elections with very little electoral atmosphere, with little propaganda on the streets and citizens more focused on Christmas vacations than on the ballot boxes. All polls published before the start of the electoral ban and those circulating clandestinely predict a clear victory for Kast over Jara, although the unknown is the margin of victory, as some surveys indicate it could be up to 18 points. «The lack of electoral atmosphere is very noticeable, there is rather an atmosphere of resignation for what is to come. It feels like the election is already decided and Kast's victory is imminent,» said Octavio Avendaño, from the University of Chile, to EFE. If the margin is narrow, he will have to be more pragmatic and form a coalition with Chile Vamos, the traditional right,» he added. In any case, whoever wins the presidency from the polls will have to deal from March 11 with a divided Parliament, where the right-wing and far-right bloc is two deputies short of a majority in Congress and where the votes of the populist People's Party (PDG) will be fundamental, whose candidate Franco Parisi came third in the first round with almost 20%. Although the former Minister of Labor of Boric, 51-year-old Jara, won the first round of November with 26.9% of the vote, she has little room to grow because in the first round the competitive candidates were from the right and she is the sole candidate of a broad and unprecedented progressive coalition, ranging from the Communist Party to the Christian Democracy. The unpopularity of her government and her communist affiliation would be making it difficult to attract new votes, according to experts, despite her attempts to appeal to the fear of the far-right and defend her leadership in emblematic laws such as the increase in the minimum wage, pension reform, or the reduction of the working day to 40 hours. «For those who are thinking of voting blank or null, talk to them, a lot is at stake. Sebastián Piñera was from the right but he had voted against Pinochet. Kast is a kind of heir to pinochetism,» Avendaño said.
