THE elections showed an overwhelming advance of the Republican Party (RP), which received 3,470,885 votes (35.41 per cent of the total), giving it 23 seats out of 50 on the constitutional commission and with it a power of veto. An additional 11 councillors will represent other right-wing parties giving the right 34 councillors. In total the right secured 61.96 per cent of the vote nationally.

The Republican Party won 12 of the 16 Chilean regions and most of its vote came within communities of high social vulnerability — the ones with greater indexes of poverty.

The vote for the RP was particularly high in the rural regions with greater presence of indigenous populations. By contrast the Left Unity for Chile coalition’s vote was higher in urban communities and where there was a significant presence of the middle class.

The spectacular electoral success of the Republicans has a lot to do with the party’s brand, and particularly with the leadership installed by Jose Antonio Kast [a reactionary politician who lost the presidential election to Gabriel Boric in 2021].

Kast has managed to capitalise on the critical situation that the country is experiencing in terms of public safety, illegal immigration and the strong emotions that were unleashed in public opinion after the murder of gendarmes Alex Salazar, Rita Olivares and Daniel Palma.

Despite the advance of conservative forces, there are valuable aspects of the voting results that should be highlighted. The first of these is undoubtedly the good performance of the Unity for Chile List. Our list was the second most voted for with 28.59 per cent, an equivalent to 2,802,783 votes securing 16 seats.

It is appropriate to welcome the election of Alihuen Antileo, representative of native peoples in general and of the Mapuche people in particular. We are certain that we share a wide array of concerns, which we should respectfully continue to discuss.

We came short of the 21 councillors that would have given us the power of veto in the constitutional commission, this is explained by the poor performance of the centrist Todo por Chile/All For Chile coalition, which only got 9 per cent of the vote and none of its candidates made the commission.

Had the centre-left presented a united coalition to the electorate, we would have won four more seats. The idea of looking for votes in the political centre, moderating the programme accordingly and presenting two separate lists of candidates of the ruling coalition was wrong and has failed.

The low vote achieved by the Todo por Chile pact shows that they were unable to convince a “centrist” electorate which continues to move to the right.

The vote of the Unity for Chile list represents a very important social base, that we must value and look after. Since the parliamentary elections of 2021, the Communist, Socialist, Socialist Convergence, Democratic Revolution and Commons parties’ vote increased from 24.67 per cent to the present 26.34 per cent [an increase of almost 200,000 votes].

This shows a strengthening of the electoral base in very complex circumstances, while the effects of the defeat in the September plebiscite are still being felt. Were we to add the votes of the centre-left parties the share of the vote would be close to 38 per cent, which suggests that the support for a new democratic constitutional project remains relatively stable.

We feel satisfied by the vote achieved by our party in which — in the midst of a blatantly anti-communist campaign — our candidates, in 14 of the 16 regions, secured a vote of 8.08 per cent (an equivalent to 791,533 votes). It is our highest share of the vote since Chile returned to democracy. Since the parliamentary election of 2021 our vote has increased by 0.73 per cent (97,671 votes.)

We are the party with the highest number of votes on the Unity for Chile list with 28.3 per cent, followed by the Socialist Party on 20.8 per cent, then Social Convergence on 20, Democratic Revolution on 15.1, Commons on 7.9, Liberal Party on 4.1 and finally Humanist Action with 0.2 per cent of the vote.

Despite a positive outlook, we must pay attention to some worrying phenomena. Most of our vote is concentrated in Metropolitan Region, Coquimbo and Valparaiso. Of the total 791,533 votes cast for us, 79 per cent are concentrated in these three regions, which has negatively affected our electability in other areas of the country despite a notable increase in our vote. This analysis explains why parties with fewer votes than us, such as the Socialist Party, Convergencia Social and Revolucion Democratica, have won more seats.

The May 7 election produced the highest number of null and blank votes (21.54 per cent)  since the return to democracy. A more detailed analysis suggests that this phenomenon has been more pronounced in the north and south of Chile regions that have historically lagged behind at the administrative and political level.

A study by the Journalistic Investigation Centre (Ciper Chile) indicates that in communities with greater urban poverty or progressive outlook there was a larger incidence of null and blank votes.

If we consider the vote of the right as a whole (Republicans and Chile Vamos), it stands at the incredible figure of 5,535,309 votes [the Chilean electorate stands at 14,022,102], an increase on the 2021 general election vote of nearly 1,900,000 votes.

By contrast the government of President Gabriel Boric has not managed to consolidate the vast majority it won in the 2021 election — it lost around one million votes on May 7.

In short, the united right wing won one million new votes — which apparently supported Boric in 2021 — and to that they have added 900,000 new voters, who went to the polls because they were obliged by law.

Another worrying aspect is that for the first time since the return to democracy, right-wing parties exceeded 50 (56.48) per cent of the vote in an election.

The conclusion must be that the spectacular growth of the Republican Party’s electoral support is not mainly at the expense of the traditional right-wing vote.

It is important, however, to note that the proportion of votes for the centre-left and the right remains almost unchanged since the plebiscite of September 2022 with 38 per cent and 62 per cent respectively.

What would be extremely serious now, should this trend continue, is its impact on the municipal elections in October 2024, and the presidential and parliamentary elections of 2025.

El Siglo/The Century is the newspaper of the Communist Party of Chile.