Chilean president-elect Gabriel Boric gestures after addressing supporters following the official results of the runoff presidential election, in Santiago, on December 19, 2021. With almost 100 percent of ballots counted, leftist lawmaker Gabriel Boric, 35, became Chile's youngest-ever president leading with 55.87 percent to 44 percent for his far-right rival Jose Antonio Kast
Gabriel Boric, 35, is set to become Chile's youngest-ever president, completing a stunning rise for the Andean nation's progressive left ten years after leading student rallies seeking better education.
He has capitalised on public outrage over Chile's market-oriented economic model, which is largely credited with fuelling decades of strong economic expansion while also fuelling inequality.
Boric was born and raised in Magallanes, Chile's southernmost area.
He became involved in student activism when he was in high school, and in 2011, while studying law at the University of Chile, he was chosen president of the student union.
He never finished his degree, instead winning election to Chile's congress in 2013 and completing two terms as a deputy, becoming one of the country's first congresspeople to represent a political party outside of Chile's two main coalitions.
As an independent, he was elected to Congress, representing Magallanes.
Boric claims that the centrists, who had previously held power in the country, were not bold enough to address the country's deep-seated inequalities.
Meanwhile, some members of the far-left have alarmed voters by voicing sympathy for dictatorial leftist regimes in Venezuela and Nicaragua.
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