The campaign begins for the plebiscite on the new Constitution in Chile

Chileans have two months to study and debate the 388 articles contained in the draft of the country’s new Constitution before going to the polls. The text, which would mark the beginning of fundamental changes in the country, describes Chile, in its first article, as a “social and democratic State”, as well as “plurinational, intercultural and ecological”.

Citizens will have the last word with their vote on September 4, the day on which they will decide whether to approve replacing the current fundamental Charter, a legacy of the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990), or whether they prefer another path for change.

The final session of the Constitutional Convention -joint and made up of 154 elected representatives, mostly progressive independents and including indigenous seats-, contains 388 articles, 259 more than the current one, considered by many as the origin of inequalities by its neoliberal court and for favoring the privatization of basic services.

The constituent body delivered one of the copies to the president, Gabriel Boric, and was dissolved after a year of work. The process was opened in October 2020 after the support of almost 80% of citizens in a historic plebiscite, as a way out to dismantle the wave of protests against inequality in 2019, the most serious since the end of the dictatorship that left a thirty deaths and thousands of injuries.

“There is something that we all have to be proud of: that at the moment of the deepest political, institutional and social crisis that our country has experienced in decades, Chileans opt for more democracy and not less,” indicated the president.

“This draft Constitution and the plebiscite should not be a trial of the Government, it is the debate on the future and destiny of Chile for the next four or five decades,” said Boric, who cannot campaign in favor of any option, but invited to debate on “the scope of the text, but not on falsehoods, distortions or catastrophic interpretations alien to reality.”

The Government has created the website www.gob.cl/chilevoinformado/ for citizens to read and download the proposal for the new Constitution.

What does the proposal for the new Constitution contain?

In its 388 articles, the proposal enshrines social rights such as a new universal public health system, free education, better pensions, and access to housing and water.

In addition, the right to voluntary interruption of pregnancy (which for now is only allowed for three reasons), the plurinational nature of the State (in which several indigenous nations coexist), greater autonomy for native peoples (the document recognizes 11 indigenous groups representing 12.8% of the 19 million inhabitants) and a process to return land to indigenous peoples.

Also gender parity in the Executive (at all levels), Legislative and Judicial branches with equal pay for men and women.

Likewise, it contains the controversial elimination of the Senate, arguing that the Legislative power will be made up of the Congress of Deputies and a Chamber of Regions that would replace the Senate. And he proposes immediate or subsequent presidential reelection only once, something that the current Constitution does not allow.

It also contemplates environmental rights, of animals and nature.

“This constitutional proposal that we deliver today (Monday, July 4) is called to become the basis of the fairest country that we all dream of,” said the president of the constituent body, María Elisa Quinteros.

For some, the new Constitution is a “historic opportunity”

Amnesty International (AI) also started its own campaign on Wednesday. The Organization is in favor of approving the proposed new Chilean Constitution.

“In September we will face two options that will determine the future of current and future generations. On the one hand, citizens will be able to approve and open the door to a Constitution that favors equal rights, or reject and keep the that has shown that it favors some over others,” said the executive director of AI Chile, Rodrigo Bustos.

According to the international organization, the current text “does not include certain rights that are vital, such as, for example, the right to housing, water, food, or considers them, but in a very deficient way, as occurs with the right to health and social security.

For her part, AI’s director for the Americas, Erika Guevara, pointed out that “the eyes of the world are on Chile. The population has a historic opportunity to correct the path of inequalities and injustices of many decades, and enshrine human rights in a new representative and inclusive Constitution, as a first step to build a fairer and freer country for all people”.

For others, the new Constitution is “far from summoning a majority”

The former Chilean president, Ricardo Lagos (2000-2006), in whose term of office a major constitutional reform was made that led to the democratization of the election of senators and the total subordination of the Army to the Government, has said that the country “deserves a constitution that arouses consensus” and assured that neither the proposal that will go to a plebiscite, nor the current Constitution “are in a position to achieve it”.

The former Social Democrat president also indicated that “the constituent process in which we are embarked today will not end on September 5, the day after we know the result of the exit plebiscite, because the two alternatives at stake are far from calling the great majority of citizens.

In the event that the rejection wins, Lagos argues that “the quorum for constitutional reforms should be lowered” or “put an end to the vestiges of a subsidiary State that remain in the current fundamental charter and consecrate the social and democratic State of law.” If approval is imposed, on the other hand, Lagos maintains that it will be necessary to “thoroughly review the role of the President of the Republic and the so-called asymmetric bicameralism” or “correct the design of the Regional State.”

What is expected of the results of the plebiscite of September 4?

More than three-quarters of Chilean voters in a 2020 referendum called for a new constitution, but the draft’s delivery comes at a time when citizens seem increasingly skeptical of the Convention’s work.

At the beginning of the year, polls indicated a clear majority intending to vote in favor of the new constitution, but since April polls have found a marked change of opinion.

According to the last survey of the private consultant Cadem last weekend, collected by the EFE agency, 51% are in favor of rejecting the text, compared to 34% who would approve it. The Chilean right will vote against the proposal finding it “radical”, while the left is inclined to give it the green light.

“On September 4, Chileans will be able to choose between two visions: the one that was imposed by blood and fire in the 1980s and another model that brings many rights,” progressive conventionalist Daniel Stingo told the EFE agency.

Meanwhile, a group of right-wing conventionalists published a letter in which they reaffirm their intention to vote against the text and denounce that it was written by “a left entrenched in its radical ideology.”

If the project is rejected in the plebiscite, the current Constitution will remain in force, even though there is broad agreement that the country needs a new Magna Carta. And if the document is approved, it will set in motion a process that will take years to become a reality. Congress would have to pass new laws to implement its requirements.

With EFE and AP