More than 15.1 million Chileans went to the polls Sunday to elect 50 members out of 350 candidates who will form the Constitutional Council tasked with proposing a new constitution.
Seven months after the first proposal to change the constitution was rejected in a referendum, Chile’s far-right conservative will be tasked with drafting a constitution to replace the text inherited from the era of dictator Augusto Pinochet, according to the official results of a voting process announced Sunday.
More than 15.1 million Chileans went to the polls on Sunday to elect 50 members out of 350 candidates who will form the Constitutional Council tasked with proposing a new constitution.
The far-right Republican Party, opposed from the beginning to reform the constitution, won 35% of the vote (22 seats), compared to 29% (17 seats) for the left-wing coalition supporting the government of Gabriel Borik, while the traditional right won 21% of the vote (11), according to official data.
This is the second mechanism to rewrite Chile’s constitution.
In early September 2022, 62% of voters rejected a first draft constitution aimed at establishing new social rights, especially in terms of education, health and housing, and recognizing the rights of indigenous peoples and the right to abortion.
After the voters refused, the main political parties nonetheless decided to start negotiations to launch the constitutional mechanism.
On Sunday, the elected council will receive an initial draft drawn up by a committee of experts to make amendments and corrections to it.
This text contains 12 fundamental principles that cannot be modified, among which is that Chile adopts a market economy.
The text will then be put to a referendum on December 17.
The current constitution, despite its successive revisions, is considered an obstacle to any fundamental social reform in Chile, which witnessed a widespread popular uprising in 2019.
