Chilean communist politician and former Labor Minister Jeannette Jara overwhelmingly won in Sunday’s “progressive primary,” becoming the incumbent leftist government’s presidential candidate for the November 16 general election.
Jara’s victory also marks the first time in 25 years that the Chilean Communist Party has fielded a presidential candidate.
Chile held a national presidential election process on Sunday ahead of the November presidential and legislative elections. “Unity for Chile,” a coalition of several leftist parties that form part of the current administration of far-left President Gabriel Boric, was the only bloc that participated in Sunday’s primary.
The Unity for Chile parties that participated in Sunday’s primary include the Chilean Communist Party, Boric’s Broad Front party, the Party for Democracy, and the Social Green Regionalist Federation. Boric, whose term is slated to conclude in March 2026, is barred from seeking immediate reelection as per Chile’s constitution.
“Let’s go Chile,” a coalition of mainstream center-right parties, did not participate in the primary as, after a series of failed negotiations with the conservative Republican Party’s candidate José Antonio Kast and the National Libertarian Party’s candidate Johannes Kaiser, they decided in April that politician Evelyn Matthei would represent the coalition. At press time, both Kast and Kaiser have maintained their decision to run for president in the upcoming election.
Jara previously served as Boric’s labor minister from March 2022 to April 2025, when she resigned to participate as a primary candidate. The communist candidate ran on Sunday against former Interior Minister Carolina Tohá and leftist Congressmen Gonzalo Winter and Jaime Mulet. According to the preliminary results published by Chile’s Electoral Service (Servel) at press time, Jara obtained 60.16 percent of the votes against Tohá’s 28.07 percent, Winter’s 9.02 percent, and Mulet’s 2.74 percent.
Unlike a general Chilean election, in which voting is compulsory for all citizens, Sunday’s primary process was voluntary and attracted a low turnout. Voter participation in the leftist presidential primary was measured by Servel at only 1.372 million. Last year, Servel measured Chile’s total electorate at over 15.4 million.
“Today marks the beginning of a new journey that we will take together, with the conviction that we will build a more just and democratic Chile. In the face of the threat from the extreme right, we respond with unity, dialogue, and hope,” Jara wrote on social media after her victory was announced. “Thank you to everyone who placed their trust in us! Now let’s keep working.”
According to the Chilean outlet Ex-Ante, Jara, 51, joined the Chilean Communist Youth at the age of 14, the minimum age required to join the organization. She then joined the Chilean Communist Party in 1999, occupying several local public administrative positions in the years following. Ex-Ante described her now-successful primary campaign as “inspired” by socialist former President Michelle Bachelet.
Jara reportedly gave a speech to her followers on Sunday evening thanking voters and the other leftist candidates, saying, “today ends the first part of this path, which is to offer an alternative to the Chile of the coming years.”
Jara also thanked Bachelet, stating, “it was she who showed us women that nothing is impossible with talent, effort, and passion.” The communist candidate said that she does not come “to sell empty promises or facile solutions” and warned about the rise of “ultra-right populism” in the world.
“I do not want Chile to be subordinated to foreign governments or extreme models. That is why I will maintain an international policy based on independence and multilateralism,” she claimed, “defending human rights wherever in the world they are violated in line with what has been our tradition as a State, promoting trade relations with other nations that benefit us as a country. We will continue to be a free, independent, and sovereign country.”
“We are facing a scenario of the rise of ultra-right populisms in the world, those who believe that speaking louder, shouting, or insulting others will solve the problems that they themselves created. Our country is no exception,” she continued, without mentioning anyone in particular.
President Boric congratulated Jara on her primary victory on social media and said that she “immediately takes the lead in guiding the forces of progressivism toward the future, which has clearly chosen her as its leader.”
“What lies ahead will not be easy, but Jeannette knows how to fight difficult battles,” Boric said. “Now we must all work together for unity, with love and openness, to call on the majority of our compatriots to continue building a more just, safe, and happy country.”
At press time, there are five presidential candidates in the Chilean election: Jeannette Jara representing the incumbent leftist government; Evelyn Matthei of the center right Let’s go Chile coalition; José Antonio Kast of the conservative Republican Party; Johannes Kaiser of the National Libertarian Party; and outsider candidate Franco Parisi of the center-right Party of the People. Kast ran against Boric in 2021 and, although he won in the first round, he ultimately lost to the far-left president in the runoff.
According to Chilean outlets, other candidates have expressed their intent to run for president but have not yet attained the required number of signatures or secured support from a party to be on the ballot as of Monday morning. If no presidential candidate obtains 50 percent of the votes in the November 16 election, a runoff between the two most voted candidates will take place on December 14.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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