General elections were held in Chile on 21 November 2021, including presidential, parliamentary and regional elections. Voters went to the polls to elect a president to serve a four-year term, 27 of 50 members of the Senate to serve an eight-year term, all 155 members of the Chamber of Deputies to serve a four-year term and all 302 members of the regional boards to serve a three-year term. Following an electoral reform in 2015, the Senate increased its membership from 38 to 43 in 2017 and grew to its full size of 50 seats after this election.
Despite narrowly trailing conservative candidate José Antonio Kast in the first round of the presidential election, leftist candidate Gabriel Boric emerged as the winner of the second round with 56% of the vote, a larger margin than predicted by opinion polls. Kast conceded defeat shortly after voting ended. At the age of 35, Boric became the youngest president ever elected in Chile and also set a record for receiving the highest number of votes in Chilean history. The turnout in the second round increased to 56%, the highest since voting became voluntary in Chile in 2013.
In the parliamentary elections the center-right coalition Chile Podemos Más remained the largest bloc in both chambers and increased their number of senators, despite seeing their vote share fall by more than 10 percentage points compared to the previous election. On the left, the new coalition Apruebo Dignidad saw gains at the expense of the center-left New Social Pact (NPS), becoming the second largest bloc in the Chamber of Deputies. However, NPS won more seats in the Senate. New parties, including the far-right Republican Party and the populist Party of the People, also gained several seats. Consequently, the newly elected Congress was split evenly between the combined left and right, with the non-aligned congresspeople holding the balance of power.
On 11 March 2022 all the newly elected authorities, including president-elect Boric, took office.
General elections were held in Chile on 21 November 2021, including presidential, parliamentary and regional elections. Voters went to the polls to elect a president to serve a four-year term, 27 of 50 members of the Senate to serve an eight-year term, all 155 members of the Chamber of Deputies to serve a four-year term and all 302 members of the regional boards to serve a three-year term. Following an electoral reform in 2015, the Senate increased its membership from 38 to 43 in 2017 and grew to its full size of 50 seats after this election.
Despite narrowly trailing conservative candidate José Antonio Kast in the first round of the presidential election, leftist candidate Gabriel Boric emerged as the winner of the second round with 56% of the vote, a larger margin than predicted by opinion polls. Kast conceded defeat shortly after voting ended. At the age of 35, Boric became the youngest president ever elected in Chile and also set a record for receiving the highest number of votes in Chilean history. The turnout in the second round increased to 56%, the highest since voting became voluntary in Chile in 2013.
In the parliamentary elections the center-right coalition Chile Podemos Más remained the largest bloc in both chambers and increased their number of senators, despite seeing their vote share fall by more than 10 percentage points compared to the previous election. On the left, the new coalition Apruebo Dignidad saw gains at the expense of the center-left New Social Pact (NPS), becoming the second largest bloc in the Chamber of Deputies. However, NPS won more seats in the Senate. New parties, including the far-right Republican Party and the populist Party of the People, also gained several seats. Consequently, the newly elected Congress was split evenly between the combined left and right, with the non-aligned congresspeople holding the balance of power.
On 11 March 2022 all the newly elected authorities, including president-elect Boric, took office.
In the subsequent presidential election, candidates from the traditional centrist coalitions finished in fourth and fifth place, while two candidates from newly formed parties and coalitions, Kast and Boric, qualified for the second round. This represented a departure from the country's political history, which had repeatedly seen power bounce between center-right and center-left parties with little structural movement between presidents.
The desire for change among voters led them to reject the traditional political parties and support candidates from new parties. Kast of the far-right Republican Party ran a campaign on populist and Christian conservative values, emphasizing "law and order" and drawing comparisons with US president Donald Trump and former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro. In contrast, Boric, a member of the left-wing Apruebo Dignidad coalition, campaigned on a progressive message reflecting the ideas behind the 2019 protests. He advocated for broadening the social safety net, higher taxes on the wealthy, combating climate change, social justice, and change to the current privatized pension system. Boric also supported the ongoing writing of a new Chilean constitution, while Kast repeatedly said he would interfere to stop its ratification if elected.
Electoral system
The President is elected using the two-round system; if no candidate receives a majority of the vote in the first round, a second round will be held.
The 50 members of the Senate are elected for eight-year terms, with around half of the Senators renewed at each general election. Senators are elected from 16 multi-member constituencies of between two and five seats based on the regions. Seats are filled by party list proportional representation. Each voter votes for one party list or list of a coalition. Seats are allocated by the d'Hondt method.The 2021 elections saw 27 members elected, representing the regions of Antofagasta, Biobío, Coquimbo, O'Higgins, Los Lagos, Los Ríos, Magallanes and Santiago Metropolitan Region. (Vacancies of seats arising between general elections are filled by a person selected by the same party.)
In the National Congress, the 155 members of the Chamber of Deputies are elected from 28 multi-member constituencies with between three and eight seats by party list proportional representation. Each voter votes for one party list or list of a coalition. Seats are allocated by the d'Hondt method. (Vacancies of seats arising between general elections are filled by a person selected by the same party.)
Presidential candidates
Summary of candidates
Below is the list of candidacies for president accepted by the Electoral Service on 27 August 2021. Boric's and Sichel's candidacies were automatically accepted after they were proclaimed the winner of their respective primaries by the Election Certification Tribunal.
Apruebo Dignidad
The Apruebo Dignidad coalition decided its presidential candidate in the publicly-funded primaries held nationwide on 18 July 2021, won by lawmaker Gabriel Boric with 60% of the vote.
On 17 March 2021, Boric's party, Social Convergence, proclaimed him as its presidential candidate. The Commons Party's leadership also announced on 17 March 2021 that it would propose Boric as its presidential candidate in a meeting of the party's leadership the following Saturday. On 23 March 2021, Democratic Revolution, the coalition's largest party, proclaimed Boric as its presidential candidate. On 29 May 2021, the Common Force movement gave its support to Boric, after he beat Marcelo Díaz in a plebiscite held on May 27–28. On 17 August 2021, the Acción Humanista movement proclaimed him as its candidate.
Marcelo Díaz (Unir): In November 2020 the Unir Movement presented the deputy and former spokesman as pre-candidate. On 18 May 2021 he dropped out of the race and lent his support to Boric.
Jaime Mulet (FRVS): The current president of the FRVS and deputy was proclaimed as his party's presidential candidate in September 2020. In May 2021, he received the support of the Christian Left movement. On 8 July 2021, the FRVS chose to support the candidacy of Daniel Jadue.
Chile Podemos Más
The Chile Podemos Más center-right coalition (previously Chile Vamos) participated in the publicly-funded primaries held nationwide on 18 July 2021. Former minister Sebastián Sichel beat the other three candidates by 49% of the vote.
Sichel was minister of Social Development and president of BancoEstado during the second administration of President Sebastián Piñera. He participated as an independent candidate in the Chile Podemos Más primary, supported by former PDC supporters and other centrist political movements.
Defeated in primary
Ignacio Briones (Evópoli): Briones is a university professor and economist who served as minister of Finance between 2019 and 2021. He was unanimously proclaimed by the Political Evolution party as their presidential candidate on 30 January 2021. He describes himself as a social liberal and seeks to promote liberal policies, although he is against abortion.
Mario Desbordes (RN): Desbordes became minister of Defense in July 2020. Before that, he was a member of the Chamber of Deputies. He was also president of his party between 2018 and 2020 and secretary-general between 2010 and 2018. During the first administration of President Sebastián Piñera, he had a stint as undersecretary of Investigations. He was proclaimed by the PRI party as their candidate on 29 December 2020. On 23 January 2021 his own party, RN, chose him as their contender for the Chile Vamos primary race after winning nearly 73% of the vote of the General Council.
Joaquín Lavín (UDI): Lavín studied economics at the University of Chicago. He was a presidential candidate in the 1999 and 2005 elections. He was also an economic appraiser of the neoliberal policies of Chile's military dictatorship. As mayor of Las Condes he actively promoted social housing programs for the poor and social integration with the rest of the cities, as well as enlarged use of technology in law enforcement and moderate social policies. He appeared as the candidate with the most support in most opinion polls.
Christian Democrat Senator Yasna Provoste won the primary election held by the New Social Pact center-left coalition (formerly Constituent Unity) on August 21, 2021, with over 60% of the vote and a turnout of around 150,000. On May 30, 2021, Provoste had expressed her willingness to compete if her party deemed it necessary. She officially launched her candidacy on July 23, 2021, during a ceremony in her hometown of Vallenar, in northern Chile. On August 17, 2021, the Christian Democratic Party proclaimed her as their candidate.
The other primary candidates, Paula Narváez and Carlos Maldonado, urged the need for a primary to determine a single candidate after the coalition failed to come to an agreement to participate in the national publicly-funded primaries held on July 18, 2021.
Defeated in primary
Carlos Maldonado (PR): The former minister of Justice and current president of the Radical Party was proclaimed as presidential candidate on 23 December 2020. On 20 May 2021 he announced he would go straight to the November election. On July 3, 2021, he backtracked on his decision and declared himself available to compete in a possible coalition primary.
Paula Narváez (PS): The former minister was proclaimed by the Socialist Party's Central Committee as its presidential candidate on 28 January 2021 in a unanimous vote. Her candidacy emerged after a December 2020 Change.org petition made by female members of the PS asking Narváez to become the party's candidate was signed by former president Michelle Bachelet. In January 2021 both senator José Miguel Insulza and PS president Álvaro Elizalde dropped out of the race. On 5 June 2021 the PPD officially proclaimed her as its candidate.
Dropped out
Heraldo Muñoz (PPD): The current president of the PPD and former minister of Foreign Affairs became the PPD candidate after beating former minister of Interior and spokesperson Francisco Vidal and former deputy for District 39 and ambassador Jorge Tarud by 54% of the vote in a primary held on 31 January 2021. On 19 May 2021 he dropped out of the race and lent his support to Narváez.
Ximena Rincón (PDC): The current senator was proclaimed as the Christian Democratic Party's candidate for president after she beat former mayor and minister Alberto Undurraga in a primary held on 24 January 2021. She won by 57% of the vote. She officially dropped out of the race on 2 June 2021.
Pablo Vidal (independent politician): The deputy quit the Democratic Revolution party in December 2020 and founded the New Deal (Nuevo Trato) political platform. On 13 April 2021, he was proclaimed as presidential candidate by the Liberal Party and New Deal. On 19 May 2021 he dropped out of the race and lent his support to Narváez.
In May 2021, José Antonio Kast dismissed the idea of holding a presidential primary with Chile Vamos. On August 6, 2021, the Christian Conservative Party, along with the Republican Party and other independents, registered the Christian Social Front pact with the Electoral Service for the parliamentary elections in November. Kast officially registered his candidacy before the Electoral Service on 19 August 2021.
Other candidates
Eduardo Artés (UP): The current president of the UP was confirmed by his party as its presidential candidate in June 2021.
Marco Enríquez-Ominami (PRO): In February 2021, his party asked the three-time presidential candidate to be once again their contender for the November 2021 election. On 23 July PRO's president, Camilo Lagos, said they would either participate in a primary or present a candidate directly to the November election. If their preferred choice, Enríquez-Ominami, was unable to run due legal restrictions, he stated that they would support senator Alejandro Guillier as their candidate. On 26 July 2021 the PRO declared they would not participate in the Constituent Unity primary to take place on 21 August 2021. On 4 September 2021 a regional electoral tribunal (TER) ordered his name to be removed from the electoral roll, thus disqualifying him from seeking office. However, he appealed successfully to the Election Certification Board (Tricel).
Franco Parisi (PDG): Parisi is an economist who ran for president in 2013, gaining 10% of the vote. He registered his candidacy for president on 23 August 2021.