BAGHDAD (AP) — The result of last month’s parliamentary elections in Iraq was ratified by the Supreme Federal Court on Sunday, confirming that the party of caretaker prime minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani won the largest number of seats — but not enough to assure him a second term.
The court confirmed that the voting process met all constitutional and legal requirements and had no irregularities affecting its validity.
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FILE - Voters gather to cast their vote at a ballot station in the country's parliamentary election in Najaf, Iraq, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Anmar Khalil, File)
FILE - Iraqi voters gather to cast their vote at a ballot station in the country's parliamentary election in Najaf, Iraq, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Anmar Khalil, File)
FILE - Election workers count ballots as they close a polling station, during the parliamentary elections in Baghdad, Iraq, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban, File)
FILE - Election workers gather parliamentary election ballots after the polls closed in Baghdad, Iraq, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban, File)
The Independent High Electoral Commission submitted the final results of the legislative elections to the Supreme Federal Court on Monday for official certification after resolving 853 complaints submitted regarding the election results.
Al-Sudani's Reconstruction and Development Coalition won 46 seats in the 329-seat parliament. However, in past elections in Iraq, the bloc taking the largest number of seats has often been unable to impose its preferred candidate.
The coalition led by former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki won 29 seats, the Sadiqoun Bloc, which is led by the leader of the Asaib Ahl al-Haq militia, Qais al-Khazali, won 28 seats, and the Kurdistan Democratic Party, led by Masoud Barzani, one of the two main Kurdish parties in the country, won 27 seats.
The Taqaddum (Progress) party of ousted former Parliament Speaker Mohammed al-Halbousi also won 27 seats, setting the stage for a contest over the speaker's role.
By convention, the prime minister of Iraq is always Shiite, the president a Kurd, and the parliament speaker Sunni.
Overall, Shiite alliances and lists secured 187 seats, Sunni groups 77 seats, Kurdish groups 56 seats, in addition to 9 seats reserved for members of minority groups.
Al-Sudani came to power in 2022 with the backing of the Coordination Framework, a coalition of Iran-backed Shiite parties, but it is not clear whether the coalition will align behind him a second time.
With no single bloc able to form a government alone, political leaders have launched negotiations to build a ruling coalition.
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Martany reported from Irbil, Iraq.
FILE - Voters gather to cast their vote at a ballot station in the country's parliamentary election in Najaf, Iraq, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Anmar Khalil, File)
FILE - Iraqi voters gather to cast their vote at a ballot station in the country's parliamentary election in Najaf, Iraq, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Anmar Khalil, File)
FILE - Election workers count ballots as they close a polling station, during the parliamentary elections in Baghdad, Iraq, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban, File)
FILE - Election workers gather parliamentary election ballots after the polls closed in Baghdad, Iraq, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban, File)
SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — As Chileans vote on Sunday, even detractors of ultra-conservative former lawmaker José Antonio Kast say the candidate whose radical ideas lost him the past two elections is likely to become the country's next leader.
Kast’s commanding lead in the polls over his rival in the presidential runoff, communist Jeannette Jara, shows how the hard-liner agitating for mass deportations of immigrants has seized the mantle of the traditional right in a country that once defined its post-dictatorship democratic revival with a vow to contain such political forces.
But much is also up for grabs about Chile’s political direction.
Kast's claim to a popular mandate depends on his margin of victory on Sunday over Jara, the center-left governing party candidate who narrowly beat him in the first round of elections last month.
Although various right-wing parties won around 70% of the vote in that election and later endorsed Kast, substantial support for Franco Parisi — a populist center-right candidate who described himself as an alternative to Kast’s “fascism” — revealed that, between the contrasting ideologies of the front-runners, sit hundreds of thousands of centrist voters with no real representation.
“Both are too extreme for me,” said Juan Carlos Pileo, 44, who plans to cast a blank ballot Sunday, as voting is now mandatory in Chile’s elections. “I can’t trust someone who says she’s a communist to be moderate. And I can’t trust someone who exaggerates the amount of crime we have in this country and blames immigrants to be fair and respectful.”
Even if elected, it remains uncertain whether Kast, an admirer of U.S. President Donald Trump, can implement his more grandiose promises. They include slashing $6 billion in public spending over just 18 months without eliminating social benefits, deporting over 300,000 immigrants in Chile with no legal status and expanding the powers of the army to fight organized crime in a country still haunted by Gen. Augusto Pinochet’smilitary dictatorship from 1973 to 1990.
For one, Kast’s far-right Republican Party lacks a majority in Congress, meaning that he’ll need to negotiate with moderate right-wing forces that could bristle at those proposals, significantly shaping policy and his own legacy.
Political compromises could temper Kast’s radicalism, but also jeopardize his position with voters who expect him to deliver quickly on his law-and-order campaign promises.
At each campaign event, Kast has taken to ticking off the number of days remaining until Chile's March 11 presidential inauguration, warning immigrants without legal status that they should get out before they "have to leave with just the clothes on their backs.”
Jorge Rubio, 63, a Chilean banker in Santiago, the capital, said he and like-minded Chileans are “also counting down the days, adding: “That’s why we’re voting for Kast."
As the pandemic shuttered borders, transnational criminal organizations like Venezuela's Tren de Aragua seized clandestine migration routes to gain a foothold in Chile, long considered among Latin America's safest and wealthiest countries. Homicides hit a record high in 2022, the first year of President Gabriel Boric’s tenure.
Kast insists that Boric’s government is too soft on immigration and crime, which the far-right leader argues are connected although the data does not necessarily support his narrative. Boric’s approval rating has hovered around just 30% for the past two years.
“We are living through a moment of psychosis, thanks to this government," said Nati Pérez, an 87-year-old Peruvian who immigrated to Chile over a decade ago, heading to vote for Kast at an old railroad terminal in central Santiago that was converted into a vast polling center for the day. “He's not against immigrants, he's against crime. Venezuela sent all their criminals here.”
Others say the firebrand former student protester who came to power in 2021 pledging to transform Chile's market-led economy, has risen to the occasion. Boric went from criticizing the use of police force on the campaign trial to pouring money into the security forces. He sent the military to reinforce Chile's northern border, stiffened penalties for organized crime and created the country's first public security ministry.
“I actually thought this government would be worse. I have to admit that it has improved security,” said Mariano Jara, 55, emerging from a polling station where he said he voted for Kast. “There's always more that can be done. There's room to get tougher.”
Chile’s homicide rate is has fallen in the last two years, now on par with the rate in the United States. But that has done nothing to change the widespread feeling of insecurity.
In Chile, just 39% of people feel safe walking alone at night, according to a recent Gallup survey of 144 countries. That's around the same figure as in Ecuador, which is now in the midst of a violent, drug-driven crime wave. In Libya, where fractious militias jostle for political power, over 70% of people said they feel safe.
As Boric's former minister of labor, Jara became popular as the architect of the administration's most important welfare measures.
That matters little now. Voters' concerns have forced her to switch gears. She has vowed to toughen border security, register undocumented migrants, tackle money laundering and step up police raids.
But promises to restore law and order are more persuasive coming from an insurgent outsider who has made security a key part of his agenda for years.
“Kast has been smart and strategic in focusing on migration and security," said Lucía Dammert, a sociologist and Boric’s first chief of staff. “It has been very difficult for the Jara campaign to move him away from those issues.”
Learning from his previous two failed presidential runs, Kast has avoided topics that fire up his critics — such as his German-born father’s Nazi past, nostalgia for Pinochet's dictatorship and opposition to same-sex marriage and abortion.
When asked about his deeply conservative values, Kast, a devout Catholic and father of nine, says only that they remain the same. His supporters, including voters who previously spurned him over his stance on social issues, now say they're willing to trade abstract human rights concerns for increased safety on the streets.
“It's not very nice to hear that he's going to separate immigrant children from their parents, it's sad, that's going to be a problem for me,” said Natacha Feliz, a 27-year-old immigrant from the Dominican Republic, referring to a recent interview in which Kast said immigrant parents without legal status who didn’t self-deport would be obliged to hand their kids over to the state.
“But this is happening everywhere, not just in Chile. Let's just hope that our security situation improves."
Associated Press writer Nayara Batschke in Santiago, Chile, contributed to this report.
Jose Antonio Kast, presidential candidate for the Republican Party, waves after voting in the presidential runoff election in Santiago, Chile, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)
Voters arrive to a polling stating during the presidential runoff election in Santiago, Chile, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Jeannette Jara, presidential candidate of the ruling Unity for Chile coalition, shows her ballot during the presidential runoff election in Santiago, Chile, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
Jose Antonio Kast, presidential candidate for the Republican Party, prepares to vote during the presidential runoff election in Santiago, Chile, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Jose Antonio Kast, presidential candidate for the Republican Party, arrives to vote during the presidential runoff election in Santiago, Chile, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
A voter casts his ballot during the presidential runoff election in Santiago, Chile, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)
Luis Soto prepares to vote in the presidential runoff election in Santiago, Chile, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
Richard Ferreira, a Venezuelan residing in Chile, waits for polls to open during the presidential runoff election in Santiago, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
Police guard the Mapocho station polling station during the presidential runoff election in Santiago, Chile, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
Presidential candidate Jeannette Jara of the Unidad por Chile coalition addresses supporters during a rally ahead of the presidential runoff election in Santiago, Chile, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
A man cycles past campaign ads for presidential candidate Jose Antonio Kast and Argentina's President Javier Milei reading in Spanish "Our future is in danger" ahead of the presidential runoff election in Santiago, Chile, Friday, Dec. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
Presidential candidate Jose Antonio Kast of the Republican Party addresses supporters, from behind a protective glass panel, during a rally ahead of the runoff election in Temuco, Chile, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)
A campaign banner reads in Spanish "Neither Jara nor Kast will make our lives better, don't vote, rebel and fight" ahead of the presidential runoff election in Santiago, Chile, Friday, Dec. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
Presidential candidates Jose Antonio Kast of the Republican Party and Jeannette Jara of the Unity for Chile coalition shake hands during a debate ahead of runoff elections in Santiago, Chile, Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)
