Chileans were set to vote in a runoff presidential election on Sunday that is expected to result in the South American country’s sharpest rightward shift since the end of the military dictatorship in 1990.

Nearly 15.6 million registered voters in Chile were set to cast ballots. Polls were expected to close at 6pm local time, pending voter lines, with initial results expected soon after.

The runoff pits Jose Antonio Kast, from the far-right Republican Party that he founded, against Jeannette Jara, the incumbent leftist government’s coalition candidate from the Communist Party.

While Jara won November’s First Round with 26.85% of the vote, Kast beat out an array of right-wing candidates to finish second with 23.92%.

As the campaigns wound down, both candidates threw jabs at each other, but also focused on the main topic that has come to define the election: crime.

Speaking on Thursday from behind a clear protective barrier in the southern city of Temuco, the capital of a region rattled by conflict between Indigenous Mapuche groups and the government, Kast described a country in chaos and said he would restore order.

“This government caused chaos, this government caused disorder, this government caused insecurity,” the 59-year-old lawyer said.

“We’re going to do the opposite, we’re going to create order, security and trust.”

While Chile remains one of the safest countries in Latin America, a recent surge in organised crime and immigration has rattled the electorate and become the main concern among the voters.

The issue quickly became a thorn in the side of leftist President Gabriel Boric, who rose to power on a wave of progressive optimism following widespread protests against inequality and promises of drafting a new constitution.

Boric, who is barred from re-election because of a prohibition on consecutive presidential terms, scrambled to adjust, boosting funding for police forces, creating task forces dedicated to fighting organised crime, and deploying the military to the country’s northern border with Peru and Bolivia.

But it wasn’t enough for many voters. Boric has been struggling with low approval ratings, while Kast’s hard-line proposals against crime and immigration have attracted support.

“This country needs important reforms, we need to retake the path we’ve had for decades because we’re completely lost,” Jose Pinochet, a 55-year-old lawyer, said while getting his shoes shined on a street in Santiago.

Antonia Moreno, 21, said she would vote for Jara but did not think it likely she would win.

“Regretfully, we’ll be part of those countries where the far-right gains in Congress and the executive branch,” she said.