Chileans vote in polarised presidential election

Chilean presidential candidate Gabriel Boric during a campaign rally in Casablanca (Esteban Felix/AP)

Chileans were voting for a new president on Sunday following a polarising campaign in which the leading candidates vowed to chart starkly different paths for the region’s most economically advanced country hit by a recent wave of social unrest.

Pre-election polls point to a large number of undecided voters but have consistently favoured two of the seven candidates running: former student protest leader Gabriel Boric and his ideological opposite, Jose Antonio Kast, who has a history of defending Chile’s past military dictatorship.