On Tuesday, the Chilean Electoral Service (SERVEL) announced that nine politicians would be candidates for the Nov. 21 presidential elections.
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Sebastian Sichel (Go Chile), Gabriel Boric (Approve Dignity), and Yasna Provoste (New Social Pact) will be the candidates of the most popular parties. Indigenous Mapuche activist Diego Ancalao will compete for the People's List, a citizen pact born from the 2019 mass protests against President Sebastian Piñera.
While the Progressive Party (PRO) candidate Marco Enriquez-Ominami will make his fourth attempt to reach the presidency, the Communist Party (PC) candidate Eduardo Artes will run for the second time.
Finally, People's Party candidate Franco Parisi, independent candidate Gino Lorenzini, and Republican Party candidate politician Jose Kast also formalized their participation. If no candidate reaches 40 percent of the votes in the first round, the balloting will be extended to December 19.
Leftist candidates Boric and Provoste are likely to lead a hard-fought struggle against Sichel, who is the Piñera administration's former Social Development minister.
"The country cannot expect something different from Sichel than what Piñera offers today. They have the same ideas and they are the same," said Provoste, a female candidate who was Senate president and former Education Minister during the Michelle Bachelet administration (2006-2010).
The 35-year-old former student leader Boric promised a process of change and asked Chileans not to be afraid that the country will be governed by young people. The future president of Chile will have to implement the changes emanating from the new Constitution, which began to be drafted in July and will be subject to approval by plebiscite in 2022.