Chilean communist Jeannette Jara and arch-conservative José Antonio Kast appear to be headed to next month’s presidential runoff that will spotlight starkly divergent views on how to lead one of Latin America’s richest economies.

With 27% of ballots counted in Sunday’s first round, Jara had 26.3% of the vote followed by Kast with 24.7%, according to data from electoral body Servel. Chileans will return to the polls on Dec. 14 for the runoff.

Chileans will size up the presidential contenders as the country grapples with a surge in clandestine migration, never-before-seen violent crime and a sluggish economy. While Jara is pitching stronger border security, she is also emphasizing plans for better public health care, income subsidies for the poor and an easing bank secrecy rules. In contrast, Kast wants to deregulate the economy and slash corporate taxes while cracking down on crime and deporting thousands of undocumented migrants.

“On the economy, Kast promises a sharp fiscal consolidation along with tax cuts which we are far from taking at face value,” Barclays economists including Ivan Stambulsky wrote in a note before the election. “Jara would likely have a weak position in Congress if she wins, limiting space for disruptive reform.”

Jara and Kast will now jockey to win over supporters from other presidential candidates, including several across the right-wing spectrum.

The winner will take over from President Gabriel Boric, a leftist millennial who was ineligible to run for a second consecutive term, in March 2026.

Market-Friendly

Jara, 51, has been a member of Chile’s Communist Party since the age of 14. She now heads a coalition of center-left parties, including those that ran the country for decades following the restoration of democracy in 1990. She is best known for spearheading a pension reform while serving as Boric’s labor minister, and for her personal charisma.

Critics point out that she has struggled to distance herself from both Boric’s unpopular administration and her own party’s radical views, including its defense of authoritarian regimes in Venezuela and Cuba. At her closing campaign rally on Tuesday, crowd members shouted anti-police chants, sparking the ire of right-wing candidates like Kast.

Kast, 59, is a lawyer and former lower house deputy who founded his party, Partido Republicano, in 2019. This is his third bid for the presidency.

His support grew this year as he poached key figures from center-right rival Evelyn Matthei’s political sector while simultaneously softening his public remarks on traditional family values and women that had previously alienated moderate voters.

Kast has been dogged by questions over the feasibility of some of his proposals, including one to cut $6 billion in public spending in 18 months without compromising social programs, and another envisioning that undocumented migrants pay for their own airfares to leave Chile.

Critics say the strict Catholic has no executive experience and will need to build more bridges to the country’s establishment economists and public policy experts, most of whom backed Matthei, to govern effectively.

Bullish Peso

Overall, financial markets are positioning for a more market-friendly administration, with the local stock market surging to a record high this past week, while the peso has gained nearly 8% year-to-date.

Chile’s government expects gross domestic product to expand 2.5% both this year and next, according to its latest public finances report. That’s a far cry from the economic growth rates that averaged above 7% throughout the 1990s up to the Asian crisis in 1999.

All the main candidates promised to accelerate growth.

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(With assistance from Carolina Gonzalez.)

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