Completely KO were the traditional parties of Chile Vamos, since the victory of the independent Sebastián Sichel in the primaries left out of the presidential race to the UDI, to Renovación Nacional and to Evópoli.
With 16,451 polling stations counted out of a total of 16,582, corresponding to 99.21%, the total number of votes cast for the right-wing primary is 1,328,049. Of that total, 651,660 are for Sichel, equivalent to 49.07%.
Further behind are the UDI standard-bearer, Joaquín Lavín, with 416,195 votes (31.34%), the RN candidate, Mario Desbordes with 130,424 (9.82%), and finally Ignacio Briones de Evópoli, with 129,770 votes (9.77%).
Briones was the first of Sichel’s rivals to acknowledge his defeat. “I want to congratulate Sebastian, his team, for the great campaign they have done, it has been a long, hard campaign, in a pandemic; they have done a tremendous job and I want to congratulate the winner of the Primary of Chile Vamos, who is called Sebastián Sichel,” he said, adding that he will work for the independent to be the new president of Chile.
Then came the reaction of the UDI, a party that had suspended its press release with Lavin. After thanking the leaders of the union and its spokesman, The Mayor of Florida, Alvaro Carter, confirmed that he made telephone contact with Sichel to congratulate him on his victory. “We will do everything possible to make him the next president of Chile,” he said. “That’s democracy, you can win or you can lose,” he added.
Finally Mario Desbordes was the last to refer to this defeat, assuring that he will work for Sebastián Sichel to win the presidential elections. Desbordes, along with Lavin and Briones, go to Sichel’s command to congratulate him in person.
Meanwhile, Sichel in his command celebrated: “In the end millions of Chileans won here. With effort and perseverance you can when you love Chile.” He later thanked the other candidates: Joaquín Lavín “for everything he has given for politics,” Mario Desbordes for “understanding the middle class,” and Ignacio Briones “for his technical rigor and defending his convictions.”
“The justice and freedom project is the best for Chileans. And we are going to win in November and December, because it is a better project for Chileans,” he added. “We got a tremendous vote that makes us think that we can be a government.”
“Goodbye to the politics of ties and welcome the politics of the booties. We welcome the politician who wants to unite us,” he said.
