This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.
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.[a] 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.[1]
Despite narrowly trailing behind conservative candidate José Antonio Kast in the first round of the presidential election, leftist candidate Gabriel Boric emerged as the winner of the second round with 55.87% of the vote. This margin was larger than what was predicted by pre-election polls.[2] Kast conceded defeat shortly after the polls closed.[3][4] At the age of 35, Boric became the youngest president ever elected in Chile and also set a record for receiving the highest number of votes in Chilean history. The turnout in the second round increased to 55.7%, which was the highest since voting became voluntary in Chile in 2013.
For the parliamentary election, the center-right coalition Chile Podemos Más kept its position as the largest bloc in both chambers and even increased their number of senators, despite losing more than 10 percentage points from the previous election. In the left wing, the new coalition Apruebo Dignidad had important gains at the expense of the center-left New Social Pact (NPS), becoming the second largest bloc in the Chamber of Deputies. However, NPS kept more seats in the Senate. New parties, such as the far-right Republican Party and the populist Party of the People, also gained several seats. Consequently, the newly elected Congress was split evenly between the combined left and right,[b] with the non-aligned congresspeople holding the balance of power.[6]
On 11 March 2022 all the newly elected authorities, including president-elect Boric, took office.[7]
In the subsequent presidential election, candidates from the traditional centrist coalitions finished in fourth and fifth place, while two candidates from newly formed parties and coalitions, Kast and Boric, qualified for the second round.[9] This represented a departure from the country's political history, which had repeatedly seen power bounce between center-right and center-left parties with little structural movement between presidents.
The desire for change among voters led them to reject the traditional political parties and support candidates from new parties. Kast of the far-right Republican Party ran a campaign on populist and Christian conservative values, emphasizing "law and order" and drawing comparisons with former US president Donald Trump and Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro.[10] In contrast, Boric, a member of the left-wing Apruebo Dignidad coalition, campaigned on a progressive message reflecting the ideas behind the 2019 protests. He advocated for broadening the social safety net, higher taxes on the wealthy, combating climate change, social justice, and change to the current privatized pension system. Boric also supported the ongoing writing of a new Chilean constitution, while Kast repeatedly said he would interfere to stop its ratification if elected.
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.[11]
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. Seats are filled by party list proportional representation. Each voter votes for one party list or list of a coalition. Seats are allocated by the d'Hondt method.The 2021 elections saw 27 members elected, representing the regions of Antofagasta, Biobío, Coquimbo, O'Higgins, Los Lagos, Los Ríos, Magallanes and Santiago Metropolitan Region. (Vacancies of seats arising between general elections are filled by a person selected by the same party.)[12][13]
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 party list proportional representation. Each voter votes for one party list or list of a coalition. Seats are allocated by the d'Hondt method. (Vacancies of seats arising between general elections are filled by a person selected by the same party.)[14][13]
Presidential candidates
Summary of candidates
Below is the list of candidacies for president accepted by the Electoral Service on 27 August 2021.[15] Boric's and Sichel's candidacies were automatically accepted after they were proclaimed the winner of their respective primaries by the Election Court.[16]
The Apruebo Dignidad coalition decided its presidential candidate in the publicly-funded primaries held nationwide on 18 July 2021, won by lawmaker Gabriel Boric with 60% of the vote.[17]
On 17 March 2021, Boric's party, Social Convergence, proclaimed him as its presidential candidate.[18] The Commons Party's leadership also announced on 17 March 2021 that it would propose Boric as its presidential candidate in a meeting of the party's leadership the following Saturday.[19] On 23 March 2021, Democratic Revolution, the coalition's largest party, proclaimed Boric as its presidential candidate.[20] On 29 May 2021, the Common Force movement gave its support to Boric, after he beat Marcelo Díaz in a plebiscite held on May 27–28.[21] On 17 August 2021, the Acción Humanista movement proclaimed him as its candidate.[22]
Marcelo Díaz (Unir): In November 2020 the Unir Movement presented the deputy and former spokesman as pre-candidate.[27] On 18 May 2021 he dropped out of the race and lent his support to Boric.[28]
Jaime Mulet (FRVS): The current president of the FRVS and deputy was proclaimed as his party's presidential candidate in September 2020.[27] In May 2021, he received the support of the Christian Left movement.[29] On 8 July 2021, the FRVS chose to support the candidacy of Daniel Jadue.[30]
The Chile Podemos Más center-right coalition (previously Chile Vamos) participated in the publicly-funded primaries held nationwide on 18 July 2021.[31] Former minister Sebastián Sichel beat the other three candidates by 49% of the vote.[32]
Sichel was minister of Social Development and president of BancoEstado during the second administration of President Sebastián Piñera. He participated as an independent candidate in the Chile Podemos Más primary, supported by former PDC supporters and other centrist political movements.[33]
Ignacio Briones (Evópoli): Briones is a university professor and economist who served as minister of Finance between 2019 and 2021. He was unanimously proclaimed by the Political Evolution party as their presidential candidate on 30 January 2021.[34] He describes himself as a social liberal and seeks to promote liberal policies, although he is against abortion.
Mario Desbordes (RN): Desbordes became minister of Defense in July 2020. Before that, he was a member of the Chamber of Deputies. He was also president of his party between 2018 and 2020 and secretary-general between 2010 and 2018. During the first administration of President Sebastián Piñera, he had a stint as undersecretary of Investigations. He was proclaimed by the PRI party as their candidate on 29 December 2020.[35] On 23 January 2021 his own party, RN, chose him as their contender for the Chile Vamos primary race after winning nearly 73% of the vote of the General Council.[36]
Joaquín Lavín (UDI): Lavín studied economics at the University of Chicago. He was a presidential candidate in the 1999 and 2005 elections. He was also an economic appraiser of the neoliberal policies of Chile's military dictatorship. As mayor of Las Condes he actively promoted social housing programs for the poor and social integration with the rest of the cities, as well as enlarged use of technology in law enforcement and moderate social policies.[37] He appeared as the candidate with the most support in most opinion polls.[38][39][40][41]
Christian Democrat Senator Yasna Provoste won the primary election held by the New Social Pact center-left coalition (formerly Constituent Unity) on August 21, 2021, with over 60% of the vote and a turnout of around 150,000.[45] On May 30, 2021, Provoste had expressed her willingness to compete if her party deemed it necessary.[46] She officially launched her candidacy on July 23, 2021, during a ceremony in her hometown of Vallenar, in northern Chile. On August 17, 2021, the Christian Democratic Party proclaimed her as their candidate.[47]
The other primary candidates, Paula Narváez and Carlos Maldonado, urged the need for a primary to determine a single candidate[48][49] after the coalition failed to come to an agreement to participate in the national publicly-funded primaries held on July 18, 2021.[50]
Defeated in primary
Carlos Maldonado (PR): The former minister of Justice and current president of the Radical Party was proclaimed as presidential candidate on 23 December 2020.[51] On 20 May 2021 he announced he would go straight to the November election.[52] On July 3, 2021, he backtracked on his decision and declared himself available to compete in a possible coalition primary.[53]
Paula Narváez (PS): The former minister was proclaimed by the Socialist Party's Central Committee as its presidential candidate on 28 January 2021 in a unanimous vote.[54] Her candidacy emerged after a December 2020 Change.org petition made by female members of the PS asking Narváez to become the party's candidate was signed by former president Michelle Bachelet.[55] In January 2021 both senator José Miguel Insulza and PS president Álvaro Elizalde dropped out of the race.[56] On 5 June 2021 the PPD officially proclaimed her as its candidate.[57]
Ximena Rincón (PDC): The current senator was proclaimed as the Christian Democratic Party's candidate for president after she beat former mayor and minister Alberto Undurraga in a primary held on 24 January 2021. She won by 57% of the vote.[60] She officially dropped out of the race on 2 June 2021.[61]
Pablo Vidal (independent politician): The deputy quit the Democratic Revolution party in December 2020 and founded the New Deal (Nuevo Trato) political platform.[62] On 13 April 2021, he was proclaimed as presidential candidate by the Liberal Party and New Deal.[63] On 19 May 2021 he dropped out of the race and lent his support to Narváez.[64]
In May 2021, José Antonio Kast dismissed the idea of holding a presidential primary with Chile Vamos.[65][66][67] On August 6, 2021, the Christian Conservative Party, along with the Republican Party and other independents, registered the Christian Social Front pact with the Electoral Service for the parliamentary elections in November.[68][69] Kast officially registered his candidacy before the Electoral Service on 19 August 2021.[70][71]
Eduardo Artés (UP): The current president of the UP was confirmed by his party as its presidential candidate in June 2021.[72]
Marco Enríquez-Ominami (PRO): In February 2021, his party asked the three-time presidential candidate to be once again their contender for the November 2021 election.[73] On 23 July PRO's president, Camilo Lagos, said they would either participate in a primary or present a candidate directly to the November election. If their preferred choice, Enríquez-Ominami, was unable to run due legal restrictions, he stated that they would support senator Alejandro Guillier as their candidate.[74] On 26 July 2021 the PRO declared they would not participate in the Constituent Unity primary to take place on 21 August 2021.[75] On 4 September 2021 a regional electoral tribunal (TER) ordered his name to be removed from the electoral roll, thus disqualifying him from seeking office.[76] However, he appealed successfully to the Election Certification Board (Tricel).[77]
Franco Parisi (PDG): Parisi is an economist who ran for president in 2013, gaining 10% of the vote. He registered his candidacy for president on 23 August 2021.[78]
Rejected
Diego Ancalao (independent): Ancalao is a Mapuche activist. He was proclaimed on 20 August 2021 by the List of the People, a leftist movement, after he garnered more endorsements from independent electors at the Electoral Service's online platform than the other two candidates in competition, Soledad Mella and Ingrid Conejeros, between 12 and 19 August 2021.[79][80] The Electoral Service, though, rejected his candidacy on 26 August 2021 on the grounds he did not provide the required minimum number of endorsements from independent electors.[81]
Gino Lorenzini (independent): Lorenzini is an economist and entrepreneur. He registered his candidacy for president on 23 August 2021, presenting over 42 thousand endorsements from independent electors, more than the minimum required by law.[82] However, the Electoral Service rejected his candidacy on 26 August 2021 because the law requires independent candidates to hold their status as independent for up to a year before the election, and he was part of the Party of the People during some of that time.[81]
Declined to be candidates
Pamela Jiles (PH): Jiles is a journalist,[83] television personality and leftist politician. She pursues her political career as deputy for District 12 in the Santiago Metropolitan Region. She comes from a family of communists and has praised Fidel Castro.[84] She appeared as a potential presidential candidate with the most support in just one opinion poll.[38] After her partner lost the Santiago governor race in May 2021, she withdrew her name from consideration.[85]
Izkia Siches (independent): Siches is a physician who has served as president of the Chilean Medical College since 2017.[86] A self-described feminist[87] and past member of the Communist Youth,[88] Siches became nationally known during the COVID-19 pandemic for her criticisms of the government's handling of public health measures.[89] Her high approval ratings during the pandemic[90] led to speculation she would run for president, but she ultimately declined.[91][86]
René Rubeska (PNC): In June 2021, the National Citizen Party had announced its intention to bring its president René Rubeska as presidential candidate.[92] However, the party was unable to gather the necessary signatures to register his candidacy.
Results considering only official candidates (excluding "Other", "Don't know", "Do not vote", etc.) and general voters, excluding polls showing likely voters or non-national samples.
Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. There is more info on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org.
Second round
Results considering only official candidates (excluding "Other", "Don't know", "Do not vote", etc.) and general voters, excluding polls only with likely voters. Average of polls every 3 days.
Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. There is more info on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org.
Public transport inefficiency
On the day of the second round on 19 December, voters at bus stops in rural parts of the country, and large municipalities in the Santiago Metropolitan Region, such as Puente Alto, San Bernardo, and Maipú, waited hours for public bus services in the blazing sun to reach their polling stations, due to a shortage of public bus services available on that day.
Soon after these reports came in, local authorities and citizens in these municipalities took to social media to show Red Metropolitana de Movilidad bus terminals and parking decks full of unused city buses. This led to speculation that the incumbent government was suppressing voters by reducing bus services to prevent them from casting their votes. Apparently, most complaints of delays came from neighborhoods where Gabriel Boric had stronger levels of support.
Leading figures from Boric's campaign, such as Izkia Siches cried foul, accusing the government of trying to help Kast win the election. Boric said "the government has a responsibility" to solve the problem to allow voters to be ferried to vote with the unused buses. The elections authority Servel expressed similar concerns to Transport Minister Gloria Hutt.[129]
The government spokesman Jaime Bellolio called the Boric campaign's claim as a "blatant lie", and denied that the government was suppressing voters, claiming that there were between 5,000 and 6,000 buses running in the Metropolitan Region. However, this was contradicted by transport authorities, which stated that only 3,000 buses were operating. The transport authority however, also stressed that the number of buses was 55 percent more than a usual Sunday and between 3 percent or 4 percent greater than on the first round of election in November.[130]
A Transantiago bus driver claimed that only 40 percent of the bus drivers available were driving that day, despite statements from the government that they were operating buses on a normal work schedule. As a result, carpools were organized through social media, while private services like Uber and Cabify offered ride discounts for voters to travel to polling stations.[131]
In the evening, just before polls closed, Transport Minister Gloria Hutt apologized, acknowledging the government was slow to react to the situation and blamed the delays on road work and traffic, but denied that the government was engaging in voter suppression.[131]
Results
President
Turnout for the second round rose by 1.2 million from the first round, and from 47.3% in the first round to 55.6%, the highest level for any Chilean election since voting ceased to be compulsory in 2012.[132]
A post-election survey showed that despite their endorsement of Kast, 59% of Parisi's voters and 23% of Sichel's voters voted for Boric, while 82% of Yasna Provoste's supporters, 83% of Marco Enríquez-Ominami's supporters, and 92% of Eduardo Artés's supporters voted for Boric.[135]
Gabriel Boric's victory celebration in the Alameda.
On 19 December 2021, shortly after the preliminary results of the second round were publicized, Kast conceded defeat and congratulated Boric through a tweet saying "I have just talked to Gabriel Boric and have congratulated him for his big triumph. From now on he is the president-elect of Chile and deserves all of our respect and constructive collaboration. Chile is always first".[136] Later that day, Kast visited Boric at the latter's campaign headquarters in central Santiago.[137] Boric thanked Kast during his victory speech, saying "we must build bridges for our compatriots to live better, because that is the people of Chile's demand".[138]
Outgoing president Sebastián Piñera had a video call with president-elect Boric, which was broadcast live on TV and radio, complying with one of the country's electoral traditions since the transition to democracy.[139] During their conversation, Piñera congratulated Boric and said "when we divide [our country] in wars between ourselves, things always go wrong. We all hope you make a very good government for Chile and the Chileans and I am sure you will do your best". Boric said "I am going to be the President of all Chileans, because I believe it is important to interpret everyone and agreements should be between all of the people and not inside four walls".[140]
Boric was also congratulated by President of the Constitutional Convention, Elisa Loncón.[141][142] The leader of Coordinadora Arauco-Malleco, Héctor Llaitul [es], dismissed Boric as being together with Kast "two faces of the same coin" and warned that Boric will maintain "the colonial-format capitalist system". Llaitul pledged to continue "the path of revolutionary autonomism".[143]
President of Brazil Jair Bolsonaro had a late and cold reaction to Boric's election. He pointed out that "half of the population abstained" in the election, and referred to Boric as "that Boric".[160][c] Boric responded to Bolsonaro's comments by stating that "clearly we are very different".[161] Bolsonaro's son Eduardo, who had supported Kast, had a harsher reaction, stating that Chile was set on a path similar to Maduro's Venezuela with Boric. He mentioned the –8% drop that occurred in the Santiago Stock Exchange following the election and linked Boric to the violence that erupted in Chile in 2019.[160]
President of the United States Joe Biden had a phone conversation with president-elect Boric on 30 December,[162] on which Biden congratulated Boric for his victory. In a press statement published by the White House,[163] Biden "applauded Chile's free and fair elections as a powerful example to the region and the world", and also underscored the cooperation between Chile and the U.S. to "promote a green and equitable recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and to address the existential threat posed by climate change". Biden also sent through the president-elect his condolences for the death of 14-year old Valentina Orellana-Peralta, who was killed in a police shootout at Los Angeles, California on 23 December. Boric later posted on his Twitter account about the conversation he had with President Biden, stating that "In addition to the shared joy for our respective electoral victories, we talked about common challenges such as fair trade, climate crisis and strengthening democracy. We will continue to talk."[164]
^It was the last opportunity in which the regional boards members are elected together with the presidential and parliamentary elections, since from the next election, scheduled for October 2024, they will be elected together with the mayors, councilors and regional governors, being the first election of the latter in April 2021. Therefore, the term of the regional boards members elected in 2021 will last just under three years, between 11 March 2022 and 6 January 2025.
^Prior to his election, Boric had criticized Bolsonaro's positions on the military dictatorship in Brazil (1964–1985) and called him "a danger for the environment and for humanity". Bolsonaro has made it a custom to react late to the election of left-wing presidents in the region, as he did with Alberto Fernández in Argentina.[160]
^"Barómetro del trabajo". Fundación Instituto de Estudios Laborales (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 26 February 2021. Retrieved 14 February 2021.
^"Agenda Criteria Agosto 2020"(PDF). Criteria Chile (in Spanish). August 2020. Archived(PDF) from the original on 20 December 2021. Retrieved 14 July 2021.
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