Far right Juan Antonio Kast and communist Jeannette Jara, who represents a coalition of left and centrist parties, got the most votes in Chile's presidential elections on Sunday and will face each other in a runoff on 14 December.
Forecasts call for 59-year-old Kast, founder of the Republican Party of Chile, to comfortably beat 51-year-old Jara in the second round by picking up the votes of other rightwing candidates. Combined this would give Kast more than 50pc of the vote.
Jara was chosen to run for president in a center-left primary and faced no real contenders on the left in the first round.
With almost 78pc of polling stations counted, Jara led with 27pc of the votes against Kast's 24pc but far from the 50pc required to win outright.
Concerns about rising crime and immigration have dominated the campaign. Kast promises an "emergency government" that would use physical barriers to shut the border to illegal immigrants, expel undocumented migrants and crack down on organized crime.
He has attacked Jara, a former minister in leftwing President Gabriel Boric's government, for representing continuity to an unpopular government. Boric's approval rating is 30pc.
Jara has tried to distance herself from the Boric government and raised the possibility of renouncing or suspending her communist party membership if elected.
Populist Franco Parisi placed a surprising third with around 19pc of the votes, Johannes Kaiser who is to the right of Kast picked up 14pc and center-right former mayor Evelyn Matthei, once a front-runner, scraped 13pc.
Jara's result is well below the 30pc ceiling her team expected and unlikely to provide sufficient momentum to win enough voters put off by the ultraconservative Kast who opposes abortion and same-sex marriage.
An admirer of Chile's former authoritarian dictator Augusto Pinochet, Kast has promised to cut public spending by $6bn in 18 months — the equivalent to 1.7pc of GDP — and reduce corporate tax to 23pc from 27pc.
Jara says she will boost the minimum wage, ease permitting and build Chile's green hydrogen potential and massive copper and lithium resources to attract foreign investment.
She also promises to cut electricity rates by 20pc for the first 85kWh of consumption per month.
The right's strong showing in the presidential election suggests it will also do well in the congressional elections for the chamber of deputies and half of the senate, with votes still being counted. Earlier polls suggested the right could win a majority in both houses.
