By Alexander Villegas
Santiago (Reuters) -Chileans chosen overwhelming Jeannette Jara, the former Labor -minister of the country, on Sunday to be the candidate of the established government and to face a field of right -wing contenders in the November presidential elections.
Jara, a member of the Communist Party of Chile, won the presidential primaries with 60.31% of the votes, while Carolina Toha, the former Minister of the Interior and member of the Democratic Socialism Party, came in a distant second with 27.91%, with 98.27% of the pollinations.
Only the reigning coalition, led by left -wing President Gabriel Boric, participated in Sunday's primers, while right -wing candidates, who have led the most presidential polls, choose to combat it on November 16.
“The most important thing is that by the end of the day the progressive sectors will be behind a single candidate,” Boric told reporters in a press conference after voting in the southern city of Punta Arenas.
Jara, who served the government's labor minister until April, became popularity when she helped to give the government's promise to reduce the working week to 40 hours.
Successive re -election is not allowed in Chile and Boric, who drove a wave of left -wing optimism to power after widespread protests against inequality, has seen his polls decrease since the performance.
Many of his promised progressive reforms, including the preparation of a new constitution, did not succeed in materializing or heavily moderated by congress and voters were more concerned about increasing crime and immigration.
This increased a number of right -wing candidates to the top of presidential polls, with Evelyn Matthei and Jose Antonio Kast who compete for first place.
Matthei, an experienced right-wing candidate, has centered her campaign around “Order, Progress and Hope”, while the Hard-Recht Firebrand Jose Antonio Kast, who lost the elections against Boric in 2021, was sustained with a tough-to-crime platform.
If no candidate reaches a majority of votes in November, a Runoff election will be held on December 14.
(Reporting by Alexander Villegas; adaptation by Chris Reese)
