Kast got 58.16 percent of the vote, while Jara, the candidate representing the left-wing, progressive, and social democratic parties, reached 41.84 percent in Sunday’s elections, when nearly 100 percent of the polling stations had been counted.

Kast, who made security the central issue of his campaign, said in his first address to the nation that he will work to restore “peace and order” and reiterated his threats against undocumented immigrants.

He affirmed, “Do not ask us, irregular migrants, to spend resources on you.” “Anyone who breaks the law has to leave.”

Although the eight left-wing and center parties that supported Jara will have to conduct an in-depth study of the causes of this resounding defeat, several experts are trying to explain the rise of the far right in the country.

Kast, of the far-right Partido Republicano (Republican Party), had the support of the also extremist Partido Nacional Libertario (National Libertarian Party), close to President Javier Milei’s ideas, and the traditional right.

The president-elect will take office on March 11.

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