In less than a month, Chile will hold its highly anticipated presidential election — under somewhat unusual circumstances.

So far, the leftist candidate Gabriel Boric from the Broad Front (Frente Amplio, FA) seems to have the biggest lead in the polls; however, the far-right José Antonio Kast is also rising fast, and as the center-right begins to crumble, all signs point to a highly polarized contest. This, in a country that has grown accustomed to a revolving door between center-right and center-left governments.

Chileans will go to the polls to vote for a successor to right-wing president Sebastián Piñera at a time when his administration is at a historic nadir. His government received heavy international scrutiny during Chile’s 2019 uprising, when, on Piñera’s watch, police committed repeated human rights violations against protesters. At the same time, elections will take place less than a year after the election of members of the new Constitutional Convention, the body charged by popular vote with drafting the new constitution that would replace the so-called “Pinochet Constitution” of 1980.