The Gulf Time Newspaper One of the finest business newspapers in the UAE brought to you by our professional writers and editors.
Bloomberg
Chileans headed to the polls to choose between diametrically opposed paths to address growing social demands that have been laid bare by the pandemic and two years of popular unrest.
Voters will choose
between seven contenders for the top job, including conservative Jose Antonio Kast and leftist
Gabriel Boric, the two front-runners.
They will also elect deputies for the 155-member lower house and about half of the senate. Polls open from 8 am to 6 pm local time, with results expected about two hours later.
The elections, which are likely headed for a runoff, will determine the future of Chile’s investor-friendly economic model that has sustained rapid growth for decades but left many citizens behind.
Kast wants to double down on the free-market system by slashing taxes and public spending, while Boric envisions a bigger state and higher corporate levies. In parallel, a new constitution is being drafted and will be voted on in 2022, with constituent assembly members closely watching the outcome of the elections.