The polling stations opened their doors this Saturday to begin the elections. municipal and regional elections in Chilewhich will last until Sunday and are considered a thermometer of the 2025 presidential elections.
More than 15.4 million Chileans are called to the polls to elect a total of 345 mayors, 16 governors, 2,256 councilors and 302 regional councilors in elections that are held in an atmosphere of great political tension and that are marked by the increase in crime and by various scandals that affect both the ruling party and the right-wing opposition.
The Voting centers will be open until 6:00 p.m. local time (21.00 GMT) and the counting of ballots will begin on Sunday at that same time.
He Government of the progressive Gabriel Boric will measure its management of the crisis of insecurity at the polls and the complaint for alleged violation against the former Undersecretary of the Interior Manuel Monsalveuntil last week one of the most highly evaluated politicians and whose resignation has opened fissures in the ruling party.
The diverse coalition that governs Chile, made up of the Boric’s Broad Front, the Communist Party and the center-leftwill attend the elections together and will do so together with the Christian Democracy (DC), who is not part of the Executive, but is its ally in many votes.
According to analysts, this could favor the ruling party and compensate for the impact of the Monsalve Case, facing an opposition that is very fragmented and that did not achieve an agreement between the traditional right of Chile Vamos and the extreme right of the Republican Party.
Chile Vamos, for its part, will try to contain a possible flight of votes to Republicans due to various corruption scandals that have affected it in recent times, especially the Audio Case, a megaplot of influence peddling that has reached the Supreme Court and of which all its aspects are not yet known.
The ruling party and the DC govern in 15 of the 16 regions of the country – with the exception of the southern Araucanía, where the liberals won in 2021 – and in important mayoralties such as Santiago Centro, Valparaíso, Viña del Mar and Concepción.
These are the first municipal and regional elections carried out with the new mandatory voting system, reestablished in 2022 after 10 years of voluntary participation
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