RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Given the general elections on November 21, six out of seven candidates to the Presidency of Chile will detail their government programs for the next four years.
The debate will take place at 8 PM local time (23.00 GMT) and broadcast by local television. According to the National Television Association (Anatel), the program will be divided into four segments: politics, economy, and society.
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The participants in the dialogue will be from the left-wing coalition Apruebo Dignidad, Gabriel Boric; from the far-right Republican Party, José Antonio Kast; the representative of the New Social Pact, Yasna Provoste; and the member of the pro-government alliance Chile Podemos Más, Sebastián Sichel.
In addition, the member of the Progressive Party, Marco Enríquez-Ominami, and the member of the Patriotic Union, Eduardo Artés, will be present. The member of the People’s Party, Franco Parisi, will not participate in the debate, according to Anatel, because he tested positive for Covid-19 in the United States and it will not be possible to arrive before the first round.
Parisi, 54 years old, has not visited Chile in all his electoral campaign since he has been campaigning virtually, from Alabama in the United States, and international media foresee his defeat in the first round. The Partido de la Gente candidate is facing a trial in his country for alleged fraud crimes.
Meanwhile, Provoste has affirmed that she will promote sports as part of a good education from her social network accounts. Sichel has used social networks such as TikTok with songs to boost his campaign.
Other candidates such as Boris and Kast have also used social networks, especially during this stage of restrictions due to the sanitary measures implemented due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The order of talks, determined by lot, will be Enríquez-Ominami, Artés, Boric, Sichel, Kast, Provoste and Parisi. In addition, the television association ruled out the implementation of a system to deal with fake news in the middle of the meeting, as requested by the leftist candidate Gabriel Boric.
In a letter sent by Boric to Anatel, the politician expressed that “the debates and exchanges of ideas between the candidates should be honest, taking care to provide the citizenship with real data that contribute to informing and not the opposite”.
Disinformation, false news, and unfounded accusations have tarnished the campaign that began two months ago to occupy the Presidential seat. Some 15 million people are called to the polls this Sunday, November 21, where the president, senators, deputies, and regional councilors will be elected.