One is a communist with a track record of social reforms. The other is a hardline right-winger who wants to deport hundreds of thousands of undocumented migrants.
Where the two frontrunners in Chile's presidential election – Jeannette Jara and José Antonio Kast – agree is on the need to crack down on the crime gangs that are terrorising one of Latin America's most stable nations.
Eight candidates are competing in Sunday's first round of voting for one of two spots in December's run-off.
Here’s a look at the four poll leaders:
The reluctant Communist
Jara, 51, is a former labour minister under outgoing centre-left President Gabriel Boric.
She swept the boards in a left-wing primary as a reformer who pushed through a reduction of the working week and pension reforms.
Despite joining the Communist Party at the age of 14, she has campaigned as a consensus-driven moderate.
"Chile is like a family. Not everyone thinks the same thing, not everyone loves each other equally. But that doesn't stop it from being a family," she argues.
Jara is a rare working-class candidate in a country where political leaders are usually drawn from descendants of the European immigrant elite. She worked various jobs, including fruit picking, in her youth.
"I identify with her life story. I also had to work and study," said Estefany López, 33, at a Jara campaign event in central Chile.
Jara has focused her campaign on typically right-wing "mano dura" themes of combating crime and illegal migration.
"Public safety will be a priority from day one," she said in a TV debate.
The Pinochet fan
A 59-year-old lawyer, Kast is the son of a former soldier in Hitler's Nazi Army, who emigrated to Chile after the war. He is also the brother of a former minister under late dictator Augusto Pinochet.
An ultra-conservative father of nine, he has alienated moderate voters in the past by advocating a ban on abortion in all circumstances, including rape, and opposing same-sex marriage.
But on his third bid for president, Kast – a defender of Pinochet's legacy – has studiously avoided identity issues.
The white-haired Republican Party candidate has instead vowed to build maximum-security prisons modelled on El Salvador's notorious CECOT penitentiary and expel all undocumented immigrants who ignore his ultimatum to self-deport.
"If they don't come voluntarily, we're going to find them," he has threatened.
"Kast is the person we need to get rid of this government, which has been disastrous" on combating crime, said Pedro Pereira, a 61-year-old office worker in downtown Santiago.
The YouTube provocateur
In third place in the polls is Johannes Kaiser, a 49-year-old ultra-right lawmaker, who rose to fame during the Covid pandemic with YouTube diatribes against immigration and women's rights.
A stout, bearded figure, he has outflanked Kast on the right by pledging to use more "plomo" (“bullets”) in the fight against crime, close the border with Bolivia, the main crossing point for undocumented migrants, and pull out of the Paris climate accord.
"I don't like the climate change trend," he told the AFP news agency in an interview.
Kaiser studied for seven degrees but never completed any.
On the economic front, he is a libertarian in the mould of Argentina’s President Javier Milei and says he would reduce the number of government ministries from 25 to nine.
The establishment choice
Running behind Kaiser in fourth is the candidate of the mainstream right, Evelyn Matthei, a former minister and ex-mayor of the wealthy Santiago suburb of Providencia.
Matthei's father was a member of Pinochet's military junta.
While defending the 1973 ouster of democratically-elected socialist president Salvador Allende, 72-year-old Matthei is seen as more moderate than Kast or Kaiser.
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by Pedro Schwarze, AFP
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