Editor TLN
First modification:
Chileans will go to the polls on September 4 to approve or reject the new Constitution that comes out of a year of work on a Convention that was the institutional solution to the 2020 riots. The campaigns for the plebiscite are at full throttle in the face of polls that they give advantage to the rejection of the text that should replace that of the Pinochet dictatorship. RFI in Spanish spoke with them, to understand the reasons for the no.
By the RFI correspondent in Santiago
There is hardly a month left for the plebiscite that will define whether or not Chile will have a new Constitution and in this race against the clock both options, both Approval, which calls for supporting the draft of the constitutional text, and those who are for Rejection, are mobilizing society to convince them of one option or another, knowing that voting will be compulsory.
Bernardo Fontaine, spokesman for the committee of the fringe for Rejection and former conventional for the right-wing pact Let’s go for Chile, assures that they have managed to summon various sectors of society
“Many are sending to our website the videos that say why they reject this bad Constitution, this shows that the headquarters of Rejection is in the streets, in families, in the workplace, while the headquarters of Approval is in La Currency”, he maintains, alluding to the seat of the Chilean government.
In the streets, opinions are divided. Although the draft of the new Constitution is located as a best seller in national newsstands, many are already leaning towards an option even without having read the proposed regulations.
We find Francisco, a retired merchant, a few meters from a street stall where copies of the new Constitution are sold.
“If it wasn’t mandatory, I wouldn’t vote, but since the matter is half dictatorial, we will have to comply. But without reading the Constitution, or the probable Constitution, I vote Reject”, he explains to RFI.
And although the polls still give Rejection the victory, the latest results show that the gap between the two options is shortened from 15 to 8 points, with the refusal prevailing with 47% of preferences. Among them is also Elsa.
[Del editor; Según la última encuesta de la empresa privada Cadem, del 1° de agosto, el 52% se inclina por la opción “rechazo”, el 40% por apruebo y el 8% no se posiciona.]
“The truth is that I reject now. At the beginning I voted Approve, but what I have been seeing, the truth is that it is not what I really expected, ”she says.
Álvaro, her husband, shares this position. “Because for me the new Constitution is very ambiguous, it leaves many things open that I can think of as yes but for other people it is no. It is very politicized for the poles: there is the right pole, the left pole and the same fight always goes on”, she laments.
The Rejection campaign has managed to raise financing up to more than 99% of the total contributions, almost 200 times more than the Approval option, and its main donors include financial and real estate businessmen.
