Gabriel Boric has now become the youngest president in the history of Chile after a runoff presidential election held on Sunday.

Boric, 35, got nearly 56 per cent of the vote compared to 44 per cent for ultra-conservative Jose Antonio Kast, who conceded even before the final result was known.

Tens of thousands of Chileans took to the streets of the capital and other cities after Kast’s concession, honking car horns in approval, brandishing pro-Boric placards, waving the rainbow LGBTQ flag and shouting, “Viva Chile!”

Fireworks lit the skies for hours on end.

Boric had campaigned on the promise of installing a “social welfare” state, increasing taxes and social spending in a country with one of the world’s largest gaps between rich and poor.

Boric rose to the limelight in 2011 after he headed a student protest demanding better and affordable education in Chile. 

He said his government would bring changes Chileans asked for in the 2019 social uprising.