The People’s Party of economist Franco Parisi, which came in third place in Chile’s general elections with almost 20% of the votes, announced that it will not support any of the two candidates who will compete in the runoff and called for a null vote after a consultation among its members.
Parisi surprised in the elections on November 16 by finishing in the third place with 19.7% of the votesbehind the communist Jeannette Jarathe letter from the ruling party that achieved 26.8% support, and from the far-right José Antonio Kast con 23,9%.
His electorate could be decisive for the second round that will be held on December 14, despite the fact that the economist He had already expressed his reluctance to endorse another candidacy.
The decision comes after an online consultation held on Sunday among party members in all 16 regions of the country. 78% of voters voted for the null vote optionwhile 20% opted to support Kast and only 2% did it for Jara.
“It was a democratic act led by the regional presidents of their respective regions, from Arica and Parinacota to the Magallanes region and Antarctica,” the president of the People’s Party (PDG), Rodrigo Vattuone, told journalists early Monday morning. “The result is overwhelming.”
Jara, the first communist to head a single list of all progressive sectors in Chile, and Kast, founder and leader of the Republican Party that apply for the third time to La Monedathey will face each other again at the polls a month after no one got the majority necessary to secure victory in the first round.
The results of the first round of elections have confirmed the ideological turn from Chile to the rightcon Kast, a liberal preservativeemerging as the favorite — the polls attribute him around 57% support for the second round compared to the 43% that Jara would achieve.
The numbers have also shown discontent with the left currently in power—led by outgoing president Gabriel Boric and who beat Kast in a runoff four years ago—.
With two weeks left until the vote, Kast, a 59-year-old conservative lawyer and opposed to abortion and same-sex marriagehas strengthened its proposal of an “emergency government” to combat organized crime and control irregular immigration, the two main concerns of Chileans.
Their proposals include measures such as the deportation of immigrants undocumented immigrants, the construction of walls and ditches on the borders and military raids to recover areas dominated by drug trafficking, whose arrival has skyrocketed crime levels in the country.