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General elections are constitutionally mandated to be held in Chile every four years to elect members of the National Congress and the president. Incumbent president Gabriel Boric is ineligible to seek a second consecutive term according to the 1980 constitution.
In the 2021 general elections Gabriel Boric defeated lawyer and politician José Antonio Kast, capitalizing on youth disenchantment, anger at former President Sebastian Pinera's term, and a slowing economy in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. [1] Originally a student protest leader during the 2011–2013 Chilean student protests, Boric promised to “leave behind once and for all the patriarchal inheritance of our society,” and take Chile in a more inclusive, progressive direction. [2] Upon his victory, Boric added that Chile under his leadership "needs transparent accounts, an orderly economy, because otherwise reforms we do can wind up being reversed." [3]
Since becoming President, Boric's government, where more than half of his cabinet are women, [4] has prioritized pension reform, [5] his proposals to nationalize lithium mining, [6] attempt to enact gun control measures, [7] expand LGBT rights in Chile, [8] progressive tax reforms, [9] and his government's efforts to approve a new Constitution. [10]
Since taking office, Boric has seen his approval ratings among voters decline significantly, to less than one-in-three approving of his performance. By May 2023 Boric's approval rating among the public was 28% and his disapproval rating was at 66%. [11] Boric's low approval ratings, combined with the Republican Party's victory in the 2023 Constitutional Council elections, and the rising popularity of Evelyn Matthei and José Antonio Kast in opinion polls, has led analysts to note Kast may make "further gains in the 2024 regional elections and place him as the front-runner for the 2025 presidential and parliamentary ballot." [12] Kast himself, considered to be a potential candidate in 2025, noted his party's victory in the Constitutional Council elections, saying that there was hope for "a major change in government" ahead of the next general election. [13]
The President is elected using the two-round system; if no candidate receives a majority of the vote in the first round, a second round will be held.
In the National Congress, the 155 members of the Chamber of Deputies are elected from 28 multi-member constituencies with between three and eight seats by open list proportional representation. Seats are allocated by the d'Hondt method. The 50 members of the Senate are elected for eight-year terms, with around half of the Senators renewed at each general election. Senators are elected from 16 multi-member constituencies of between two and five seats based on the regions. [14]
The Independent Democratic Union is a conservative and right-wing political party in Chile, founded in 1983. Its founder was the lawyer, politician and law professor Jaime Guzmán, a civilian allied with Augusto Pinochet. Guzmán was a senator from 1990 until his murder by communist guerrillas on April 1, 1991.
Providencia is a commune of Chile located in Santiago City. It is bordered by the communes of Santiago to the west, Recoleta to the northwest, Las Condes and Vitacura to the northeast, La Reina to the east, and Ñuñoa to the south. It belongs to the Northeastern zone of Santiago de Chile.
General elections were held in Chile on 11 December 1993 to elect the President, members of the Chamber of Deputies and elected members of the Senate. Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle of the Concertación alliance was elected President, and the alliance also won a majority of seats in the Chamber of Deputies and maintained its majority in the Senate. As of 2024, this is the most recent presidential election that did not result in a runoff.
Carolina Montserrat Tohá Morales is a Chilean political scientist, educator, and politician. Since September 6, 2022, she has served as the Minister of Interior and Public Security of Chile, under the presidency of Gabriel Boric. Previously, she served as the Minister Secretary General of Government – being the first woman to hold this position – during the first government of President Michelle Bachelet.
The President of Chile, officially known as the President of the Republic of Chile, is the head of state and head of government of the Republic of Chile. The president is responsible for both government administration and state administration. Although its role and significance have changed over time, and its position and relations with other actors in the national political organization have also evolved, it remains one of the most prominent political offices in the country. It is also considered one of the key institutions that form the "Historic Constitution of Chile," and is crucial to the country's political stability.
Evelyn Rose Matthei Fornet is a Chilean politician and the current mayor of Providencia, a prosperous commune of Santiago, serving since 2016. Prior to her current position, she held the role of Deputy in the Chilean Congress from 1990 to 1998, and subsequently served as a Senator from 1998 to 2011. In January 2011, she left her Senate seat to assume the role of Minister of Labor and Social Security under Chilean President Sebastián Piñera until July 2013. In the 2013 Chilean general election, she ran for President with the support of the Independent Democrat Union Party. However, she lost in a runoff to former President Michelle Bachelet.
General elections were held in Chile on 17 November 2013, including presidential, parliamentary and regional elections. Voters went to the polls to elect:
The Nueva Mayoría, also translated in English as New Majority, was a Chilean centre-left electoral coalition from 2013 to 2018, composed mainly of centre-left political parties supporting the presidential candidacy of Michelle Bachelet in the 2013 election.
Gabriel Boric Font is a Chilean politician serving as the 37th and current president of Chile since March 2022. The leader of Apruebo Dignidad, he was member of the Chamber of Deputies for the district of Magallanes and Antarctic from 2014 to 2022.
Political Evolution, also known in Spanish by its shorthand Evópoli, is a Chilean centre-right political party, founded in 2012. The party defines itself as a liberal platform for the people who look for a "modern centre-right who proposes as the central axis of their proposal the appreciation of diversity, the emphasis on encouraging local communities and the pursuit of social justice".
José Antonio Kast Rist, also known by his initials JAK, is a Chilean lawyer and politician. Kast ran for president in 2021, winning the first round and losing in the second round run-off to Gabriel Boric.
The Republican Party is a right-wing populist and conservative political party in Chile. Its founder and former leader is Chilean presidential candidate José Antonio Kast.
General elections were held in Chile on 21 November 2021, including presidential, parliamentary and regional elections. Voters went to the polls to elect the President of the Republic to serve a four-year term, 27 of 50 members of the Senate to serve an eight-year term in the National Congress, all 155 members of the Chamber of Deputies to serve a four-year term in the National Congress, and all 302 members of the regional boards to serve a three-year term. Following an electoral reform in 2015, the Senate increased its membership from 38 to 43 in 2017 and grew to its full size of 50 seats after this election.
The Social Convergence is a left-wing political party in Chile. Founded by current Chilean president Gabriel Boric, it is now led by Diego Ibáñez.
Paula Graciela Daza Narbona is a Chilean surgeon, pediatrician and politician who served as Undersecretary of Public Health. Daza was a consultant for Evelyn Matthei and Andrés Allamand during the 2013 Chilean general election partly drafting the health care plan of their presidential campaigns. During the COVID-19 pandemic a criminal complaint was filed against Daza and other members of the government, which accused them of negligence during the pandemic. Daza is responsible for implementing one of the most drastic vaccine passports during the COVID-19 pandemic in Chile.
The Christian Social Front was a Chilean far-right electoral coalition formally created on August 6, 2021, between the Republican Party and the Christian Conservative Party for the 2021 general elections.
Ruth Hurtado Olave is a Chilean politician who was elected as a member of the Chilean Constitutional Convention.
María Josefa Errázuriz Guilisasti, also known as "Pepa" Errázuriz, is a Chilean politician. She was mayor of Providencia between 2012 and 2016. She currently serves as councilor of the same commune since 2021.
Constitutional Council elections were held in Chile on 7 May 2023. Voting was compulsory, and resulted in an electoral victory for right-wing parties, passing the threshold of a three-fifths majority of constitutional council members to freely draft a new constitution, removing the veto option from left-wing members. This marked a sharp shift from a left-wing majority that freely drafted a rejected first constitutional rewrite in 2021 and was described as a political loss for President Gabriel Boric.
In the run-up to the 2025 Chilean presidential election, opinion polls are conducted to assess the intention to vote in Chile during the presidential term of Gabriel Boric. The date range for these opinion polls runs from the first measurement in October 2022, to the day the election is held, 23 November 2025.
