₦airaland Forum

The streets of Santiago erupted in celebration Sunday after leftist millennial Gabriel Boric became Chile’s youngest-ever president-elect with an unexpectedly large victory over his far-right rival in a polarizing race.

Boric, 35, garnered nearly 56 percent of the vote compared to 44 percent for ultra-conservative Jose Antonio Kast, who conceded even before the final result was known.

Tens of thousands of Chileans took to the streets of the capital and other cities after Kast’s concession, honking car horns in approval, brandishing pro-Boric placards, waving the rainbow LGBTQ flag and shouting: “Viva Chile!”

Fireworks lit the skies for hours on end.

“I’m thrilled, I am crying with joy. We dealt a blow to fascism!” pharmacy worker Jennie Enriquez, 45, told AFP.

“I am happy because there are going to be many changes that will help the people and the working class,” added construction worker Luis Astorga, 58.

Boric had campaigned on the promise of installing a “social welfare” state, increasing taxes and social spending in a country with one of the world’s largest gaps between rich and poor.

Branded a “communist” by his detractors, he vowed in his first official address Sunday to “expand social rights” in Chile, but to do so with “fiscal responsibility.”

“We will do it protecting our macro-economy, we will do it well… to improve pensions and healthcare,” he said.

– ‘Great triumph’ –
Kast congratulated Boric, who leads an alliance that includes Chile’s Communist Party, “on his great triumph.”

“From today on, he is the president-elect of Chile and he deserves all our respect and constructive cooperation. Chile always comes first.”

Kast is an apologist for brutal dictator Augusto Pinochet and his neo-liberal economic model, credited with Chile’s relative wealth but blamed for its deep-rooted social inequality.

He opposes same-sex marriage, contraception and abortion, and had initially pledged to close the ministry of women’s affairs, a promise he later rowed back on.

According to a projection by Chile’s Servel election body, turnout was more than 55 percent — a record since voting became voluntary in 2012.

Boric won by a margin of nearly a million ballots out of 8.3 million cast by 15 million eligible voters.

“Clearly more young people came out, it seems clear… that Boric managed to mobilize the segment that is more difficult to mobilize, which is the segment of young people,” Claudia Heiss of the University of Chile told AFP.

“All (Kast’s) anti-rights, anti-women, anti-gay speech, I think it helped mobilize that young segment,” she added.

The new president will face the difficult task of healing a society reeling from a polarizing campaign replete with antagonistic attacks and fake news onslaughts.

For a country that has voted centrist since the democratic ousting of Pinochet 31 years ago, it was a stark choice between two polar opposite political outsiders.

Boric on Sunday reiterated his plans for “a more humane Chile, a more dignified Chile, a more egalitarian Chile.”

Congratulations poured in from elsewhere in Latin America, from Brazil’s ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Cuban leader Miguel Diaz-Canel and Argentina’s Alberto Fernandez on the left, to right-wing presidents Ivan Duque of Colombia and Guillermo Lasso of Ecuador.

Boric and Kast had softened their policy proposals in a bid to appeal to Chileans left without an obvious candidate when they split the centrist vote in the first round, leaving only the two antipodes.

Both represent parties that have never been in government.

– ‘President of all Chileans’ –
Chile is going through profound change after voting overwhelmingly last year in favor of drawing up a new constitution to replace the one enacted in the Pinochet years.

The 2020 referendum was in response to an anti-inequality social uprising in 2019 that left dozens dead.

The drafting process, in the hands of a largely left-leaning body elected in May, must yield a constitution for approval next year, on the new president’s watch.

President Sebastian Pinera, who leaves office with a low approval rating, said Sunday the country was living in “an environment of excessive polarization, confrontation, disputes.”

Pinera urged his successor, before the result was known, to never forget that “he will be the president of all Chileans, and not just those who support him.”

Boric will be inaugurated in March next year.

AFP

Siwisheswereesh:
I have observed a lull is Christmas-related adverts from top companies like MTN, Airtel, Nestle etc etc this season.

What could be responsible for this?

NGpatriot:
On the ground, in the air or in between, Air force 1 is always in contact anywhere around the world.

God Bless Nigeria

God Bless VP Osinbajo, the best and the hardest working VP in the world.

God Bless PMB.

God bless me too..

BeeBeeOoh:
https://thenationonlineng.net/ill-continue-delivering-for-nigerians-buhari-replies-obasanjo/

VaselineCrew:
See traffic below, my goodness.

When you get down to the road, you will see that a lack of maintenance coupled with lack of law and order causes this.

Some traffic lights don’t work, and of course, there is never any police officer enforcing laws, hence chaos.

At least during Ambodes time when he introduced those 112 police squad cars, the police was very enthusiastic about pulling people over. Any small thing, they’ve pulled you over.

Now, danfos run amok, running red lights, stopping everywhere, with no law enforcement even turning around to look at them.

Then as always, due to a complete and utter lack of law and order, drivers will turn a 3 lane road into a 6 lane road, leading to multiple minor accidents, halt on free flow of traffic and so on.

All this can be solved, it’s so simple, just have the police stop each and every car they can that breaks the law. Laws like running red lights, driving on the bush path of the road and so on. That way you eliminate a bunch of the chaos and traffic on this route.

I really wish I was in charge sometimes.

May God help us and bless us.

dre11:
Auditor-General Uncovers Multi-Billion Naira ‘Fraud’ In N/Assembly
The office of the Auditor- General for the Federation (AuGF) in its 2019 Annual Audit Report has indicted the management of the National…...






https://dailytrust.com/auditor-general-uncovers-multi-billion-naira-fraud-in-n-assembly


Lalasticlala

baralatie:
Her own is fair!
At falomo these wicked people wrecked a woman shop of exquisite drinks worth #3000000 with a fraudulent bank alert!
These guys are just plain wicked

Coldie:
When it comes to road rolling they will forget north has 70% of Nigerias landmass and population and therefore needs more tolls

naptu2:
https://www.legit.ng/nigeria/1447850-northern-youth-group-berates-obasanjo-criticising-buhari/

See full press statement below.

FarahAideed:
The useless BBC reporter clearly didn't do his due diligence when he described Major Failure Buhari as " Tough on Corruption" ... Buhari is actually corruption personified

The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, has said most of the roads constructed in the country will be tolled to repay the loans used to fund them.

Emefiele said this on Wednesday while answering questions after the two-day retreat of the Bankers’ Committee in Lagos.

He said, “Most of those roads will be tolled and we know that in many other countries in the world, roads are tolled because those projects are commercially viable.

“They can be refunded with tolls so that maintenance can be done on a regular basis, and people will pay for it and enjoy good roads, and enjoy good facilities because that is the only way we can fund the infrastructure of this country, which is the large amount of money that is needed.”

According to him, within the financial system, there is a lot of idle funds that can be channelled, if packaged the way the Infrastructure Corporation of Nigeria Limited has been set up to give comfort to the local investors to put their funds in the project.

He said most of the funds would be in naira because the banks and pension fund administrators have large pool of funds, and most of the funds can be raised locally before the country begins to think of accessing international finance.

Emefiele said the banking sector intended to help the government and the private sector to raise finance without necessarily encumbering the balance sheet of the Federal Government.

T9ksy:
okay o,Nigeria will in due course,
happens to all you so-called "proud nigerians".

Las, Las, everybody (in Nigeria) will chop breakfast!!

xcommando:
Happening now in sabon gari kano.

There is trouble at the sabon gari area of Kano state. This is as a result of Hisbah invading the area and destroying alcoholic beverages shops . A pregnant woman who happen to be the wife of one of the shops invaded was whisked away. This got the youth angry. And they started protesting and destroying any keke that belong to an hausa person.
Hisbah squad and 4 police van have been chase away from that area by the youth



https://dailynigerian.com/breaking-violence-breaks/

oyatz:
Pa Ayo Adebanjo was NOT Tinubu's associate but Tinubu's godfather.


Pa Ayo Adebanjo and the late Payment Ganiyu Dawodu made Tinubu Governor of Lagos in 1999.

sapientia:
He just finished Akande and Buhari

seunmsg:
So, how will working against Tinubu give us restructuring? Will Atiku or Tambuwal give us the restructuring you guys are talking about?

What is the overall interest of Yoruba nation? How is Tinubu’s presidential ambition working against the overall interest of Yoruba people? Who is in a better position to protect Yoruba interest between Atiku, Tambuwal and Tinubu?

Kwanza:
https://www.channelstv.com/2021/12/14/reps-approve-buharis-request-for-5-8bn-loan-10m-grant/