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More than 15 million Chileans vote this Sunday to approve or reject a new progressive Constitution that replaces its current text, favorable to the market and dating from the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. One of the first to vote was President Gabriel Boric, who traveled to his native Punta Arenas to vote first thing in the morning.
The nearly 3,000 voting centers have already opened this Sunday in Chile, kicking off one of the most important votes in the country’s recent history. Chileans will have to decide between the approval or rejection of a new Constitution.
- The former president called for the union during his vote
“We have spent too much time in confrontation, violence. Only with unity are we going to be able to build everyone’s house,” Sebastián Piñera declared at the time of voting.
The conservative politician also assured that the country needs a new Constitution, and that this would be “the opportunity for a happier life.”
- President Boric votes in Magallanes: “This is a historic moment”
It is time to “write our history” declared the president after casting his vote. Accompanied by his partner, Irina Karamanos, his parents and one of his two brothers, he voted this Sunday in the southern city of Punta Arenas, at the school where he studied as a child, and located a few meters from the family house.
Gabriel Boric, a supporter of the constituent change, promised to preserve unity regardless of the result: “I can guarantee that our will and our action, regardless of the result, will be to call for a broad national unity of all sectors, of all social organizations, of civil society, of the political parties, we want to hear all the voices in order to continue with this process”.
Vote ready! Proud of the historical moment we are experiencing as a country. Let us exercise our right and duty to write our history through voting responsibly, calmly and with great joy. Always with more democracy, never with less. Today #YourVoteDecide! pic.twitter.com/ZZXn3Oxk5z
— Gabriel Boric Font (@gabrielboric) September 4, 2022
- Chile votes before the eyes of the whole world
“This is a historic moment of which it is very important that all of us, regardless of our choice, feel deeply proud,” said the President of the Republic.
He also urged Chileans to express themselves by voting “responsibly, calmly and with great joy”: “They are watching us, from all over the world, let us exercise our right and duty to write our history.”
Finally, the president insisted that he will continue with his agenda during the remaining three and a half years of his mandate and did not rule out the possibility of a government restructuring in the coming days or weeks.
- Almost 3,000 voting centers
The polls will be open until 6:00 p.m. local time (9:00 p.m. GMT) and the result, which is expected to be very close, will be known a couple of hours later.
Some polling stations outside the country, such as those in New Zealand, Australia, Japan, South Korea and China, have already closed and show a favorable advantage to the new text. However, votes from outside the country are historically more progressive than those from the rest of the electorate.
- A compulsory vote
Although nearly 80% of Chileans voted to draft a new constitution by the end of 2020, polls show that public support for the new text has been on the wane. The latest polls conducted before a two-week blackout showed “no” in the lead with 47%, compared to 38% “yes” and 17% undecided.
However, experts warn that the stage is open because for the first time voting is universal and compulsory, and there is a large number of voters who have been absent from the polls for years.
- A “social and democratic state of law, plurinational, intercultural, regional and ecological”
The new proposed text is the result of an agreement reached to quell violent protests against inequality in 2019. It focuses on social rights, the environment, gender equality and indigenous rights, and declares Chile a “Social State”. and democratic by law, multinational, intercultural, regional and ecological”.
Its defenders say that it will help create a “fairer” Chile, while its detractors argue that it is a “radical” text and that it “does not unite the country.”
If approved, the text will replace the current Magna Carta, inherited from the dictatorship (1973-1990) and seen by a part of society as the origin of the country’s inequalities for promoting the privatization of basic services, such as education, health or pensions. If rejected, the current Basic Law will remain in force.
With Reuters and EFE
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