Anti-migrant conservative wins Chile’s presidential poll

The ultraconservative former congressman José Antonio Kast has been elected as Chile’s next president.

- Tiago Rogero South America correspondent

With ballots from more than 99% of polling stations counted, Kast took 58.16% of the vote, against 41.84% for the leftist Jeannette Jara, a former labour minister under the current president, Gabriel Boric.

Kast - the son of a Nazi party member, an admirer of the dictator Augusto Pinochet and a Catholic known for opposing abortion and same-sex marriage - built his campaign on a vow to expel tens of thousands of undocumented migrants.

He told the thousands of supporters who waited more than two hours for his speech: “Here, no individual won, no party won - Chile won, and hope won. The hope of living without fear. That fear that torments families.”

Many analysts believe Kast succeeded by focusing on a major concern for many Chileans: violent crime, which has increased in recent years even though the country remains one of the safest in Latin America.

Kast repeatedly blamed migrants for rising insecurity. Over the past decade, the number of migrants has doubled, fuelled by about 700,000 Venezuelans forced to leave their country amid its economic collapse.