Chileans will vote Sunday in a presidential runoff between hard-right former deputy Jose Antonio Kast and leftist former protest leader Gabriel Boric.
The two philosophically opposed candidates are vying for votes to determine who will serve as president from 2022 to 2026.
Boric is determined to become Chile's youngest president, despite Kast's victory in the first round of elections on Nov. 21.
Boric and Kast have been trying to secure the support of the other first-round candidates.
Kast is predicted to garner 12.79 percent of the votes cast by center-right competitor Sebastian Sichel, who recently confirmed his support for Kast. Franco Parisi, who obtained 12.80 percent in the first round, is backing him.
Yasna Provoste of the Christian Democratic Party, who won 11.61 percent of the vote in November, and Marco Enriquez-Ominami of the Christian Democratic Party, who received 7.61 percent, both expressed support for Boric.
Michelle Bachelet, the former President of Chile and the current United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, sparked outrage last Sunday when she revealed her intention to vote for Boric.
"It does matter which candidate is voted for, that's why I'm going to vote for Gabriel Boric," she explained, seeking to sway an uncertain voter.
Abstention reached 53% of the 15 million individuals summoned to the polls in November.
Kast, a 55-year-old lawyer, and the former deputy has expressed support for Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship. With his anti-immigration stance and anti-abortion rhetoric, he is considered to mirror former US President Donald Trump and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.
Kast quit the right-wing Independent Democratic Union Party in 2016 and ran as an independent candidate in the 2017 general election, finishing fourth with 8% of the vote.
He created the Republican Party in 2019, where he ran and won the first round with 27.9 percent of the vote, beating out all other candidates.
Boric, a progressive politician, was a crucial figure in the 2011 student protests against structural inequality in his forties.
He finished second in the first round with 26 percent of the vote as a left-wing I Approve Dignity alliance member.
While Kast offers Chileans "order and progress," Boric is campaigning for a country that protects social rights and liberties.
Both candidates have stepped up their assaults over the previous month while attempting to modify their beliefs to attract votes from a broader, more moderate population.
Kast has accused Boric of drug use, compelling the socialist contender to submit blood tests in November indicating that no narcotics were identified in his circulation.
As the closely contested campaign draws close, the outcome remains unknown.
