Former student activist wins Chile’s presidential election

A left-wing legislator who rose to prominence during anti-government protests in Chile has been elected the country’s next president.

Gabriel Boric won 56 percent of the votes, compared with 44 percent for his conservative opponent, Jose Antonio Kast, With almost 99 percent of polling stations reporting.

Outgoing President Sebastian Pinera a conservative billionaire held a video conference with Boric to offer his government’s full support during the three-month transition.

Boric said in the brief televised appearance with Pinera, “I am going to be the president of all Chileans.

“I am going to do my best to get on top of this tremendous challenge.”

Boric, who will take office in March, has tapped into public anger at Chile’s market-oriented economic model, widely considered to have helped drive decades of rapid economic growth but stoking inequality.

That imbalance sparked widespread angry social uprisings in 2019, lighting the fuse for the political rise of the progressive left and the redrafting of the country’s dictatorship-era constitution.

Boric is promising to be a president for all Chileans, including those who have opposed his vision for the Chilean future.

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Kamila/Al-Jazeera