Chile: Political Parties & Elections

Chile's National Congress is elected under an open-list proportional representation system adopted in 2017, which replaced the country's earlier binomial system and allowed a wider range of parties, from the Communist Party on the left to the Republican Party on the right, to win seats. This proportional structure tends to produce a fragmented, multiparty Congress in which presidents must build coalitions across several parties to pass legislation.

In the November 2025 presidential election, Communist Party candidate Jeannette Jara and Republican Party candidate José Antonio Kast advanced to a December runoff after leading a crowded first-round field. Kast won the runoff decisively with roughly 58 percent of the vote to Jara's 41 percent, campaigning on tougher crime and immigration enforcement and economic revival; his victory marked the most right-wing government in Chile since the return to democracy, and he took office on March 11, 2026.

Chile's bicameral National Congress consists of a 155-seat Chamber of Deputies, elected to four-year terms in 28 multi-member districts of three to eight seats each, and a 50-seat Senate, elected to eight-year terms in 16 districts, with about half of the Senate renewed every four years. Both chambers use the D'Hondt method of proportional allocation, meaning that congressional composition often diverges from the coalition backing the sitting president, requiring ongoing negotiation to govern effectively.