Sawt Falasteen - Far-right candidate Kast wins Chile presidential election

With about 80 percent of the votes counted, Kast had 58 percent of the vote, an unassailable lead over Jeannette Jara, a Communist Party member heading a broad leftist coalition.

In central Santiago, Kast supporters beeped car horns, waved flags and cheered a man who once openly defended the bloody dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.

Kast campaigned on promises to expel hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants, close the northern border, tackle high rates of violent crime and restart a stalled economy.

Once one of the safest and most prosperous countries in the Americas, Chile has been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic, violent social protests and an influx of organized crime groups.

"I have high expectations that he will fix the immigration issue," said 42-year-old social worker Maribel Saavedra.

It is the latest victory for Latin America's right, after winning elections in Argentina, Bolivia, Honduras, El Salvador and Ecuador.

For Kast, a 59-year-old father of nine, it was a lucky third attempt for the presidency.

Jara called Kast to concede defeat, she said on X shortly after first results were released, adding that voters had spoken "loud and clear."

-'Extreme measures' -

After casting his vote near Santiago and taking a selfie with supporters, Kast promised to seek unity after a sometimes bitter campaign: "The winner will have to be the president of all Chileans."

Kast is far to the right of most Chileans on many social issues, including abortion, which he opposes without exceptions.

But many Chileans fed up with high crime and slow growth during four years of leftist rule said they would vote for change, despite misgivings.

Santiago homemaker Ursula Villalobos, 44, said she planned to vote for Kast and was willing to accept some radical changes if they bring safety.

"What's important," she told AFP, "is that people can leave their homes without fear and return at night without worrying that something will happen to them on street corners."

Polls show more than 60 percent of Chileans thought security is the top issue facing the country -- far eclipsing issues like the economy, healthcare or education.

And while statistics show that violent crime -- fueled by Venezuelan, Peruvian, Colombian and Ecuadoran gangs -- has risen in the last 10 years, fears about crime have risen even faster.

- 'Pinochet out of uniform' -

Kast's hardline positions have also raised fears that he will edge Chile back toward a dictatorship that killed or disappeared more than 3,000 of its own citizens and tortured many thousands more.

"I'm fearful because I think we are going to have a lot of repression," said 71-year-old retiree Cecilia Mora, who said that "under no circumstances" would she vote for Kast.

"The candidate of the right reminds me a lot of the dictatorship. I lived through the dictatorship. I was young, but I lived through it, suffered through it.

"I see him as a Pinochet out of uniform," she said.

Pinochet left power in 1990, after Chileans rejected a bid to extend his 17-year rule via referendum.

As a university student, Kast campaigned for the pro-Pinochet vote.

His family background has also raised questions. Media investigations have revealed that Kast's German-born father was a member of Adolf Hitler's Nazi party and a soldier during World War II.

Kast insists his father was a forced conscript and did not support the Nazis.

- Incumbent blues -

Jara led the first round of voting in November, but right-wing candidates garnered a majority of the vote.

The 51-year-old's stint as labor minister under outgoing President Gabriel Boric has proven to be an Achilles' Heel.

Boric's term was crippled by repeated failed attempts to reform the Pinochet-era constitution.

Since 2010, Chileans have alternated between left- and right-wing governments at every presidential election.

In this election, voting is compulsory for the first time in more than a decade. Almost 16 million citizens are registered to vote.

H.Nasr--SF-PST