Soon, Chilean voters will make a decision that could affect the country’s crucial copper and lithium extraction industries, buttresses of Chile’s economy and a key area for future growth. In a Dec. 17 election, voters will choose between center-right candidate Sebastian Pinera and center-left candidate Alejandro Guillier, the top two finishers in the first round of balloting, to become the country’s next president. The first-round results also included an unexpectedly strong showing by Beatriz Sanchez, the candidate representing the left-wing Broad Front coalition, elevating the group’s political stature during the contest’s deciding round. While capturing Broad Front’s support could boost Guillier’s chances of victory, to win the coalition’s backing, he would have to incorporate its economic proposals, which could have a major effect on the country’s energy and mining industries.

In the initial round of the presidential election on Nov. 19, Pinera won 36.6 percent of the vote, well short of the majority he would have needed to capture the presidency on the first ballot. Guillier, meanwhile, secured a spot in the second round with 22.7 percent. Sanchez fell just shy of moving on with 20.2 percent. No other candidate received more than 10 percent of the vote. The fact that Sanchez came so close to a spot in the second round, demonstrating Broad Front’s growing political clout, did not sit well with Chilean investors. The day after election results were announced, Chile’s stock market dropped almost 6 percent, while the peso fell almost 1 percent against the dollar. Investors prefer Pinera, who served as president from 2010-2014 and has proposed cutting corporate taxes as well as public spending. Guillier, on the other hand, has called for increasing public spending, additional state intervention in Chile’s lithium extraction industry and retaining the corporate tax increase put in place by outgoing President Michelle Bachelet. However, as Guillier moves left in an attempt to secure the Broad Front’s support, his proposals on state intervention and public spending may go beyond what he already has articulated.