General elections were held in Chile on 16 November 2025. Voters went to the polls to elect the 38th president of Chile, renew all 155 seats in the Chamber of Deputies, and fill 23 of the 50 seats in the Senate. Republican Party candidate José Antonio Kast defeated Communist Party member Jeannette Jara in a runoff election on 14 December.
In the first round, Jara, a communist, won a plurality of the vote. Kast, who has been described as conservative or hard-right, placed second. Combined, right-leaning candidates received approximately 70 percent of the first-round presidential vote. Johannes Kaiser and Evelyn Matthei, both candidates on the right, endorsed Kast for the runoff, while Franco Parisi declined to make an endorsement, calling on his voters to decide themselves who to vote for. In the run-off, Kast defeated Jara with 58% of the vote, the second-highest percentage of the vote since Chile's transition to democracy. Kast received 7.2 million votes, which was the highest ever vote total in Chile's history. He won in all sixteen regions of the country.
In the parliamentary election, Unidad por Chile, a coalition of the ruling leftist and center-left parties, emerged as the largest bloc of the Chamber of Deputies, while in the Senate the left-wing and right-wing blocs reached a tie with 25 senators each.
This was the first general election since the reintroduction of compulsory voting in 2022.
The 2021 presidential election saw left-wing candidate Gabriel Boric, a former student protest leader during the 2011âÂÂ2013 student protests, defeat conservative rival José Antonio Kast in a runoff. Boric's victory was attributed to widespread youth mobilization, dissatisfaction with the center-right administration of Sebastián Piñera, and economic strains following the COVID-19 pandemic. His platform emphasized social equity, feminist reforms, and a "dignified life" for marginalized groups, pledging to dismantle Chile's "patriarchal inheritance".
By mid-2023, Boric's approval ratings had plummeted to 28%, with 66% disapproving of his administration, according to polls. Analysts cited economic stagnation, legislative gridlock, and public safety concerns as primary factors. The right-wing Republican Party, led by Kast, capitalized on this discontent, securing a dominant victory in the May 2023 Constitutional Council elections, resulting in the failed 2023 Chilean constitutional referendum. Kast declared the results a mandate for "a major change in government", positioning himself as a frontrunner for 2025. Meanwhile, Evelyn Matthei of the Independent Democratic Union (UDI) also gained traction in opinion polls.
This was the first presidential and congressional election since a constitutional amendment was passed and promulgated on 27 December 2022, restoring compulsory voting for all elections and plebiscites for the first time since 2012, except in primary elections. Eligible citizens who did not vote faced a fine of approximately 33,000 pesos (around US$35).
The President is elected using the two-round system; if no candidate receives over 50% of the vote to win outright in the first round, a second round will be held.
Seven of the following eight candidates were registered with the Electoral Service (Servel) and were accepted on 29 August 2025. Jeannette Jara, as a primary winner, was automatically registered as a candidate on 14 July 2025.
On 1 September 2025, all candidates for the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate were announced; 1,091 candidates for the Chamber of Deputies and 130 for the Senate:
The campaign for the general election officially began on 17 September 2025 and with eight presidential candidates, the main contest was between Jeannette Jara and José Antonio Kast.
A polarising election, the campaign's main concerns were rising gang violence and migration from Venezuela, rather than traditional economic or social issues.
Among Kast's campaign pledges were cuts to public spending and the creation of an police force against illegal migration inspired by the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Analysts also expected the results could pave way for more market friendly initiatives as Kast was favored to win.
In general terms, right-wing and far-right parties proposed fiscal austerity measures, promotion of private investment, reduction of the state and tough security policies such as militarization, mass deportations and police defense. Jara, for her part, advocated for greater state intervention, expansion of social benefits such as basic income, regulation of prices for essential services, strengthening gun control, and temporary biometric registration for immigrants.
The campaign for the second round began on 17 November. Jeannette Jara started it with an event involving women in the La Pintana neighborhood of Santiago while José Antonio Kast started his campaign in the city of Temuco.
Insecurity was once again the key issue of the campaign, with Jara declaring that she would strengthen the police force, lift banking secrecy in order to track down money linked to drug trafficking, and reclaim neighborhoods from criminal gangs. For his part, Kast, speaking from Temuco, the capital of a region militarized since 2022 due to violence from criminal gangs, promised to deport migrants and erect a "border shield".
The main televised debate between the two candidates took place on the evening of 9 December and was organized by the National Television Association (Anatel), which, according to Anatel, was watched by over seven million people.
Throughout his campaign, Kast used bulletproof glass at his rallies, a fact that was criticized by Jara.
Jara emerged as the leading candidate in the first round with 27% of the vote, followed closely by José Antonio Kast with 24%. However, as no candidate obtained the required majority to win the presidency outright. As a result, the election proceeded to a runoff between Jeannette Jara and José Antonio Kast on 14 December 2025. Third place went to Franco Parisi, who obtained 20% of the vote, a surprising result given he had been polling at under 10%. Kaiser received 14% of the vote, and fifth place went to Evelyn Matthei, who received 12% of the vote, a significant defeat as she was expected to come third and had led the polls for several months at one point in the campaign. The other candidates received less than 5% of the votes.
In his third attempt to become president of Chile, Kast won the second round with 58% of the vote, marking the most significant shift to the right since the end of the Pinochet dictatorship. He received the second-highest percentage of the vote since Chile's transition to democracy. Kast received 7.2 million votes, the highest ever vote total in Chile's history. He won all regions of the country, with Jara only winning the overseas vote.
In the Chamber of Deputies, Unidad por Chile emerged as the largest bloc with 61 seats, followed by Cambio por Chile with 42 seats. Smaller coalitions and parties, including Chile Grande y Unido and the Party of the People, also secured representation.
In the Senate, 23 seats were renewed. The election maintained the overall ideological balance seen in 2021, with right-leaning and left-leaning parties each controlling 25 seats when counting independents. The main changes were internal to each bloc: Unidad por Chile unified the former center-left and left coalitions without altering their combined seat total, while the right experienced a shift in influence as the Republican Party expanded and the Independent Democratic Union declined.
Matthei was the first to make a statement after the results were announced, accepting defeat and pledging her support for Kast in the second round. Kaiser also called for people to vote for Kast in the second round. President Boric congratulated the winners and called for "a debate with high standards."
In keeping with tradition, outgoing President Gabriel Boric congratulated President-elect Kast on his victory during a televised phone call. Kast thanked him for his congratulations and expressed his desire for a "very orderly and respectful" transition, also hoping to hear Boric's views on the country once he assumes the presidency on 11 March 2026.
In his first speech as president-elect, Kast stated that "it wasn't one person who won here, Chile won," and when some members of the audience booed Jara's name, he demanded respect and silence, adding that "she took on a very difficult challenge and gave it her all in her own style until the end, and that, at least for me, is something I value."
Jara personally congratulated Kast after his victory. In her following public statement, Jara acknowledged defeat and expressed her support for the president-elect "in everything that is good for Chile." Kast received a visit from Jara that night at campaign headquarters.
Kast was congratulated by several international leaders, including Argentine President Javier Milei, Paraguayan President Santiago Peña, Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa, Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz, Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves, Brazilian President Lula da Silva, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum as well as U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, former Colombian President Iván Duque and former Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso. He was also congratuled by Spanish politician and leader of the Vox party Santiago Abascal, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and by Alberto Núñez Feijóo.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro criticized Kast's election harshly, stating "Fascism is advancing. I will never shake hands with a Nazi, nor with the son of a Nazi; they are death incarnate. It's sad that Pinochet had to impose himself by force, but it's even sadder now that people are choosing their own Pinochet." Boric's outgoing government responded to Petro's statements, rejecting them and deciding to file a formal protest.
The Mapuche Political Platform issued a statement stating that the electoral results "not only signify an electoral defeat for the country's progressive and indigenous forces but also a cultural defeat".
The following day, on 15 December, President Boric and Kast held a meeting at the Palacio de la Moneda to prepare for the transfer of power.
After failing to reach the minimum legal threshold of votes, at least 13 candidate political parties may dissolve in the coming months, including the Radical Party of Chile, which has already begun dissolution proceedings after 167 years of history and several elected presidents, Evópoli, and the Social Green Regionalist Federation.