Chileans living in Australia have been among the first to cast their votes in the final round of the country's presidential election.
Members of the Chilean community turned out in high numbers on Sunday, despite rising COVID-19 case numbers, after the first round of voting in November.
They will decide whether progressive candidate Gabriel Boric or conservative Jose Antonio Kast will be elected as Chile's president.
The country of 19 million people is on edge, fearing renewed mass protests in response to the outcome of the neck-and-neck race between Mr Kast, a 55-year-old lawyer, and Mr Boric, a millennial and former student activist 20 years his junior.
For a country which has voted centrist since the democratic ousting of brutal dictator Augusto Pinochet 31 years ago, the choice between two political outsiders is stark.
“They are both from very extreme sides, so luckily now they are converging to the centre,” Gonzalo Castex told SBS News at a polling booth in Sydney.
“I saw that they changed some policies in the last couple of weeks. I hope they will listen to all sides of the political spectrum."
Many fear the socially and fiscally conservative policies of law-and-order candidate Mr Kast - an apologist for Pinochet who opposes gay marriage and abortion and is a proponent of cutting taxes and social spending.
Others are put off by Mr Boric's political alliance with the Communist Party, which many in Chile equate with the failure of Venezuela, from where it hosts many migrants widely blamed for a rise in crime.
From left to right: Pedro Leon, Victoria Rabia and Carina Torrieta turned up to vote in Sydney on Sunday. Source: SBS News
Socially-liberal Mr Boric, who has taken up the mantle of Chile's 2019 anti-inequality uprising, has vowed to create a "welfare state" by increasing social spending in a country with one of the world's largest gaps between rich and poor.
The jury is split
“I hope that Kast wins. He will bring peace and security; the terrorism and narcotrafficking will end. So he will bring security, justice and opportunities for jobs,” Mario Humberto Guzman Vargas told SBS News.
Pedro Leon, however, is of a different opinion.
“Boric represents hope to improve our country. He is a sincere, open option, to be able to improve the lives of all Chileans,” he told SBS News.
Victoria Rabia, another Boric supporter, agreed. “Boric is very focused on mental health, the environment and he really cares and is willing to listen to people,” she said.
“We need different leaders, young people who are conscious of the important realities for humanity today,” Carina Torrieta, also a Boric supporter, told SBS News.
Mr Kast edged out six other candidates in the first presidential election round in November to end up in the top spot with 27.9 per cent of the vote.
Mr Boric came second with 25.8 per cent.
Both candidates have softened their policy proposals in a bid to appeal to Chileans who were left without an obvious candidate when they split the centrist vote in the first round, leaving only the two antipodes.
Polling booths in Sydney. Source: Supplied
“I think Boric has a good chance, but I don’t want to speculate,” Paula Andrea Castro Lopez, election observer for Chile’s broad-left Approve Dignity campaign, told SBS News.
“To be honest, I have seen a lot of people supporting Kast here today. I can see that their campaign is very strong, and they are voting."
There will be 'noise'
Chile has a high abstention rate, with about 50 per cent of its 15 million eligible voters regularly giving the ballot box a wide berth.
But that statistic doesn’t deter Mr Castex from casting his vote.
“It’s always important to keep close to your country. Even though you are not living there, you have family there and you want the best for your family and for your country,” he said.
The country is going through profound change after voting overwhelmingly last year in favour of drawing up a new constitution to replace the one enacted in the Pinochet years.
The drafting process, in the hands of a largely left-leaning body elected in May, must yield a constitution for approval next year, on the new president's watch.
The presidential campaign has been polarised, with much antagonistic messaging and fake news offensives.
"It is a competition focused on discrediting the competitor," University of Santiago analyst Marcelo Mella told AFP, to the detriment of any real policy discussion.
Closing his campaign on Thursday, father-of-nine Mr Kast vowed that "Chile is not, and will never be, a Marxist or communist country."
Mr Boric, for his part, said his rival "will only bring instability, more hate and violence”.
Analyst Patricio Nava of New York University told AFP there is likely to be unrest, or at least unease, ahead.
"There is going to be some noise, be it in the stock markets (if Boric wins) or in the streets (in the case of Kast)."
Whoever ends up victorious, governing will not be easy with a Congress split just about 50-50, requiring negotiation on every policy proposal, and compromise.
Additional reporting by AFP
