Explainer: Chile's 2025 General Elections

About 15.7 million Chileans are eligible to vote in this election. That includes not only citizens but anyone who has resided in the country for more than five years, per the Constitution. In Chile’s regional elections in 2024, nearly 800,000 non-citizen residents voted. Venezuelan immigrants, in particular, have swelled as a voting bloc with close to a quarter of a million eligible to cast ballots. Suffrage is also extended to the nearly 150,000 Chileans residing abroad. 

In the first round of the 2021 presidential election, turnout ran around 47 percent. But that number is set to increase as voting will be compulsory in this election—the first presidential election with obligatory voting since 2012. Voting was compulsory in the constitutional referendums in 2022 and 2023, and turnout was over 80 percent in each of those contests. For the presidential race, the fine for not voting without a valid reason is $35 to $107. 

Back in 2019, Chile experienced a series of large-scale demonstrations, known as the estadillo social, that challenged the government’s perceived inaction on economic issues, such as inequality, cost of living, and unemployment. Those issues, and questions of how the Chilean state was providing for its people, animated the 2021 elections, triggered a now-abandoned constitutional rewrite project, and helped propel former student activist Boric to the presidency.

This time, however, economic issues have given way to concerns about crime and migration, per an October Activa poll. Just under half of Chileans ranked crime as one of the country’s top three problems. Chile remains one of the safest countries in Latin America, per InsightCrime, but it has seen an uptick in violence over the past five years amid the growing presence of transnational organized crime groups, such as Tren de Aragua and Los Pulpos. Between 2022 and 2023, rates of organized crime—which includes the trafficking of drugs, migrants, money, and weapons—jumped 37 percent. Analysis from Universidad San Sebastián shows that organized crime incidents became more common in 2024 with corruption incidents rising 690 percent, cybercrimes rising 93 percent, and weapons-related offenses rising 80 percent. Recently, there have been several high-profile corruption scandals over the involvement of police officers in the drug trade. 

Having said that, there has been progress when it comes to decreasing violent crime. Boric launched a plan known as “Streets without Violence,” which has sought to increase police presence, strengthen prosecution, and control firearms. Homicides peaked in 2022 and have been almost 25 percent lower in 2025. 

Some 30 percent of Chileans also named immigration as one of the top three issues, per Activa’s October poll. An AtlasIntel survey reported that 92 percent of Chileans considered it a major problem—the highest rate in the region. From 2018 to 2024, migration to Chile rose 47 percent and immigrants now account for 10 percent of the population—about 2 million people. Venezuelan immigrants make up the largest portion of that growth, rising from 345,000 to 729,000 during that period. About 18 percent of immigrants, roughly 340,000 people, are undocumented.

The immigration uptick has sparked debates over the cost of providing schooling, healthcare, and housing to migrants. And nearly 70 percent of Chileans believe that immigration leads to increased crime, per a Center for Public Studies survey. 

Voters also rank economic issues—like unemployment, inflation, and high prices—as major issues. Chile has among the highest unemployment rates in Latin America, around 9 percent. The inflation rate of 6.1 percent puts it in line with its regional peers, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru. Among those countries, Chile has the highest consumer confidence.

Chile’s GDP is expected to grow 2.5 percent this year. However, a slowdown in global growth, especially in relation to downshifts in global trade, has depressed growth in Chile. When the mining sector is removed from economic projections, Chile’s economic growth this year is virtually zero.

Eight candidates are running in the presidential race.

Jeanette Jara, Unity for Chile

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Jeannette Jara

Leading in the polls with around 25 percent of vote intention in the first round is leftist Jeanette Jara, 51, who will represent the Unity for Chile (UpCH) coalition made up of eight parties, including Boric’s Broad Front. Prior to her victory in the UpCH primary election on June 29, Jara served as labor minister (2022-2025) in Boric’s cabinet. She also served in the second administration of former President Michelle Bachelet (2014-2018).

Jara’s campaign has sought to promote her image as an approachable and humble figure. Jara has emphasized her working class roots while also highlighting her work in the Boric government to usher through pension reform, raise the minimum wage, and reduce the work week from 45 to 40 hours.

Jara has sought to shift attention from her active affiliation with the Communist Party, which she joined when she was 14, by shifting to the center. She pledged to nominate a technocrat as her finance minister. She’s also pitched herself as the candidate who can deliver on security with a plan for more police training and new prisons. 

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José Antonio Kast

José Antonio Kast, Republican Party

Polling the highest on the right is José Antonio Kast, 59, of the Republican Party. The businessman and former congressman finished as the runner-up to Boric in the 2021 second-round vote after a fourth-place finish in the 2017 contest.

Just as in his prior campaigns, Kast is advocating for social conservatism and a more liberalized approach to the economy. That includes cutting government expenditures $21 billion over the course of his presidency, reducing red tape, and providing investment incentives. On migration, Kast advocates for mass deportation. He models his security agenda after Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, including the construction of high-security prisons, harsher penalties for criminals, and joint police and military operations. 

Johannes Kaiser, National Libertarian Party

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Johannes Kaiser

Sitting even further on the right is Johannes Kaiser, 49, who got his political start as a libertarian YouTuber. In 2021, Kaiser won a seat in the Chamber of Deputies as a member of Kast’s Republican Party. After a falling out with the Republicans, he founded his own political force, the National Libertarian Party, in 2024.

Like Kast, Kaiser is advocating for mass deportations and a reduction of the state. He’s also calling for all of Chile’s state-owned companies to be privatized, including copper giant Codelco, a departure from Kast. Kaiser advocates for Chile to exit global accords on climate change and human rights. Support for Kaiser has risen in the weeks leading up to the first-round election. Support for Kaiser was 6 percent in Cadem’s July polling. In their final poll in October, he reached 14 percent of voter intention.

Evelyn Matthei, Chile Vamos

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Evelyn Matthei

The more moderate candidate on the right is Evelyn Matthei, 71, of the Chile Vamos coalition, which is composed of four parties, including her Independent Democratic Party. Matthei is a veteran of Chilean governance. She served a national deputy from 1990 to 1998, a senator from 1998 to 2011, minister of labor under President Sebastián Piñera from 2011 to 2012, and mayor of the affluent Providencia neighborhood in Santiago from 2016 to 2024. In 2013, she was the presidential candidate for a center-right alliance after the original nominee had to step down. She lost the runoff to Bachelet.

Matthei's campaign emphasizes her record of working across the aisle and themes of stability to contrast with what she sees as the extremism of Jara, Kast, and Kaiser. An economist by training, she has sketched out an economic plan to lower the corporate tax rate, create one million jobs, and reduce state spending. Like Kast and Kaiser, she has advocated a hardline approach on security, with investments in policing and the construction of prisons. 

Matthei has seen her support slump since September when she captured 18 percent of intention, per Cadem. In Cadem’s final poll, she captured 13 percent. 

Other candidates

Radio host and economist Franco Parisi, 58, who is competing as an independent, has polled around 10 percent. Marco Enríquez-Ominami, 52, a perennial candidate, is running in his fifth consecutive election.

Chileans will also cast ballots for all the members of the Chamber of Deputies and just under half of the Senate seats.

For the Chamber of Deputies, Chileans elect representatives in 28 districts, each with three to eight deputies. They vote for party lists, though voters can record their preferences among a party’s candidates. Deputies serve four-year terms and can seek reelection twice.

Eight of Chile’s 16 Senate districts will hold elections also using party lists. Each district elects two to five senators, who serve eight-year terms and can run for reelection once. 

In this election, there are five coalitions that submitted lists for legislative elections. Six political parties are presenting their own candidate lists and about a dozen candidates are running independently.

Currently, Boric’s coalition holds about half of the seats in the Chamber of Deputies. In the Senate, it holds 18 of 50 seats.

If the right wins a majority in either body, it will be a historic first. Since the 1950s, Chile’s legislature has always been under minority governance or controlled by a center-left alliance. Still, even when a bloc has a majority, the high number of parties in Chile’s legislature make negotiation and compromise critical to any president’s success. Boric made progress on passing legislation with support from the right, especially on security. 

If voting in Congress mimics presidential results, the right should hold the most seats in the next session. However, the lack of a unified right coalition could diminish their numbers and power. Chile’s proportional representation system means the party that gets the most overall votes picks up extra seats. However, tension between presidential candidates, such as Kast and Matthei, may undermine a potential coalition between right-wing parties.