In Chile, the polls have spoken and it is ultimately the ultra-conservative right that will be responsible for drafting the new draft Constitution to replace the one inherited from the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. Sunday, May 7, more than 15.1 million Chileans voted to elect, among 350 candidates, the 50 members who will form the Constitutional Council.
After counting the ballots, it is therefore the Republican Party, classified on the far right and opposed from the start to a reform of the Constitution, which wins the elections, with 35% of the vote, or 22 seats. The left-wing coalition supporting the government of Gabriel Boric won 29% of the votes cast, or 17 seats, according to official data. Finally, the traditional right won 21% of the vote, or 11 seats.
The Republican Party, which opposes abortion and has an anti-immigrant rhetoric, “won’t have to negotiate with anyone, it can write whatever Constitution it wants” and “will have the power to veto any amendment,” predicts Claudia Heiss, director of the political science faculty at the University of Chile. This will be the second process of rewriting the country’s Basic Law.
At the beginning of September 2022, the Chileans had rejected by 61.9% a first proposal for a new Constitution. This was to establish new social rights, particularly in education, health or housing, recognize the rights of indigenous peoples or the right to abortion. After this rejection by the voters, the main political parties of the country had all the same decided to start negotiations to relaunch the constitutional process.
The Council, whose members were elected on Sunday, will receive a preliminary draft drawn up by a committee of experts to which they will have to make adjustments and amendments. The text includes twelve essential principles which, however, cannot be changed. Among them, the fact that Chile is a market economy. The project will then be submitted to a referendum on December 17.
The current Constitution, inherited from the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990), is considered, despite several successive revisions, as a brake on any substantive social reform in Chile, the scene in 2019 of a great popular uprising. “I still have hope that we can have a new Constitution. With the one we have, there are things that hang in the balance that favor some more than others,” said Francisco Carrasco, a 33-year-old aviation technician, after casting his vote at a school in San Bernardo, south from Santiago.
