LatinNews Daily - 28 October 2024

*Chile’s electoral authorities (Servel) have released preliminary results from the 26-27 October regional and municipal elections, showing big losses for President Gabriel Boric’s ruling coalition in the capital Santiago. According to the preliminary results, the right-wing opposition coalition Chile Vamos won in 122 of the country's 345 communes (municipalities), up from 87 in the 2021 elections, while the Contigo Chile Mejor coalition, comprised of parties in the federally ruling coalition and its allies, won 111 communes. The far-right opposition Partido Republicano (PR) won in eight communes. One of the most important results was in Santiago commune, which serves the centre of the capital. The incumbent mayor, Irací Hassler, of the Partido Comunista de Chile (PCCh), one of the parties in the ruling coalition, lost out to Chile Vamos’ candidate, Mario Debordes Jiménez, who took 51.08% of the vote to Hassler’s 28.65%. Chile Vamos also took over some other Santiago communes from the ruling coalition, including Independencia, San Miguel, and Ñuñoa. A significant victory came for the ruling coalition in Maipú, another populous commune in Santiago, where the incumbent Tomás Vodanovic won by a landslide with 70% of the vote. The ruling coalition also saw re-election for Macarena Ripamonti in Viña del Mar commune, Valparaíso region. Eleven of the 16 gubernatorial elections will go to a second-round vote, including for the governors of the Santiago Metropolitan Region and the Valparaíso region, two of the largest. Only five regions elected their governors in the first round: Tarapacá, Ñuble, and Los Ríos, where the ruling coalition won; Aysén, where Chile Vamos won; and Magallanes, where an independent candidate won. The elections differ from those in 2021 which were dominated by victories for independent candidates amid discontent with the traditional political class, which ultimately contributed to Boric’s success in the presidential elections that year. Now part of the political establishment, Boric’s ruling coalition is struggling to maintain popularity with its handling of a rape accusation against a prominent cabinet minister serving as a major setback in the run-up to the elections.