Santiago de Chile, Dec. 8 – With regional tours and a televised debate, the candidates for the Chilean presidency, Jeannette Jara and José Antonio Kast, will seek to convince undecided voters, with one week remaining until the runoff election.
The left-wing and progressive candidate, along with the Christian Democrats, will tour towns in the north, center, and south of the country and plans campaign closings in the city of Coquimbo and the populous capital commune of Puente Alto.
Meanwhile, the far-right representative will participate on Thursday in an event in Temuco, the capital of the La Araucanía region, in addition to continuing his travels across the country.
Both will face off on Tuesday evening in the final debate organized by the National Television Association of Chile (Anatel) ahead of Sunday’s runoff.
The event will last about two and a half hours, and the candidates must address nine topics that have not yet been revealed.
Kast and Jara spent the weekend in northern regions, where they reiterated their differing proposals to address border security and immigration.
At an event in Antofagasta, the Republican Party candidate insisted that irregular migrants have 94 days to leave the country, or else they will have to leave immediately with no belongings.
He also said he will not regularize the over 300,000 people in that situation and that if they are detected during a traffic stop, or in a health or education center, they will be given five days to leave the territory and will no longer be allowed to re-enter.
At an event in Iquique, Jara announced the idea of constructing a technological border for biometric tracking of people and acting against those with criminal records or pending sanctions.
This is how border control problems are solved; all proposals to build a wall, a ditch, a fence, or place physical obstacles to prevent irregular migrants from entering the country make no sense, she said, referring to her opponent's proposals.
The speeches in the northern regions were also aimed at capturing the votes of followers of Franco Parisi, from the Party of the People, who came in third place in the first round of voting on November 16.
Next Sunday, more than 15 million people will be called again to the polls to choose the next president between two very different visions of the country.
