Chile rejected the proposal for a new constitution that was voted on this Sunday (4) with a wide margin. With 48.01% of the polls counted by 8:40 pm Brasília time (7:40 pm local time), the rejection of the Charter won by 62.55% to 37.45%, a margin already considered irreversible by specialists. President Gabriel Boric convened a meeting with all parties this Monday (5), at 4 pm (5 pm in Brasília).
As soon as the results began to show the defeat of Aprovo, horns and shouts of “Viva, Chile” could be heard around Dignidad Square, epicenter of protests and celebrations in Chile. Cars passed waving flags. On the Rejecting campaign committee, there were a lot of young people partying in the early evening.
The journey was marked by long queues — since, in this referendum, voting was mandatory — and intense heat. There were no episodes of violence or irregularities, according to election officials.
The rejection is a hard defeat for the government of leftist Boric, shortly before completing six months in office. Despite not having openly supported the approval, the administration is weakened by the fact that the new Constitution has been one of the engines of its political coalition and an essential part of its campaign for the Presidency.
Boric emerged on the Chilean scene in the context of the 2011 student protests, which called for reforms in the education system. In 2019, further demonstrations expanded these claims to include access to pensions, healthcare and quality housing. The current president was one of the articulators of the agreement that calmed the streets and pressured the then government of right-wing president Sebastián Piñera to start the constitutional process.
In October 2020, 80% of Chileans decided in a plebiscite to retire the 1981 Constitution, enacted during the military dictatorship. Two years later, however, there was no consensus to approve the new Charter, drafted by a Constituent Assembly composed mostly of independent left-wing legislators. There was gender parity and representation of native peoples.
Now, the path to be followed is more thorny. Boric and the main parties in the country had agreed, although not formally, that the constitutional process would continue despite the rejection scenario, with the start of writing a new Charter.
Boric will convene the country’s main parties to formulate a proposal, which will be sent to Congress, in which the government does not have a majority, for approval. Among the requests from the right for the new process are to reduce the participation quota of independents and indigenous people, who had 17 seats in the Assembly, each representing an indigenous nation in the country. The right prefers that, this time, there is a greater participation of traditional parties.
The left, on the other hand, wants the rejected text to serve as a basis for the next one and to maintain the ideas of plurinationality, defense of the environment and women’s rights. The progressive wing’s plan is also for the new text to be ready in a year and for it to be approved before September 11 of the next year, the 50th anniversary of the military coup that started the Pinochet dictatorship (1973-1990).
One of the obstacles, however, will be the fact that, according to the electoral law, it is not possible to carry out a new election of members of a new Constituent Assembly in less than 125 days after this Sunday’s plebiscite.
There are other options on the table, for example, instead of electing a new Constituent Assembly. One is for Congress to choose a committee of experts, constitutionalists and lawyers to draft the Charter. It will also be discussed whether another referendum for approval would be necessary at the end or whether or not Congress itself could approve it.
In any case, even if the constitutional process goes ahead, the country will continue to wait politically, while economic problems, such as inflation around 13%, and social problems, such as the increase in reports of violence by 30% accumulate. on the last year.
President Boric voted early in the morning in Punta Arenas, along with his brother, Simón, who is his communications chief and who had been wounded in a demonstration last Thursday (1st). The president asked for calm and tranquility and said he was optimistic about the outcome.
Other former presidents also voted and expressed themselves. Eduardo Frei (1994-2000), who defended the rejection, stated that “a new text needs to unite Chile, listen to even more people than were heard in this process”. Michelle Bachelet (2006-2010 and 2014-2018), who voted in Geneva, supported approval, saying it was “easier to pass and then fix” than starting from scratch. Meanwhile, Ricardo Lagos (2000-2006), who had made several criticisms of the process and even announced that he would reject the Charter, retreated from the attacks and preferred not to declare a vote. Boric’s predecessor, Sebastián Piñera, openly supported the rejection
At the Estadio Nacional, one of Santiago’s largest polling stations, voting was normal, with the exception of an incident caused by a group of anti-vaccination protesters, who appeared with large posters with the names and photos of people who had died, they said, after to get vaccinated against Covid-19.
Citizens approached to ask them to leave, as political acts are prohibited at polling stations. “But this is not politics, they tricked us and killed us with these vaccines,” said one of those carrying the posters.
At a voting center in the neighborhood of Providência, approval activists were removed from the queue for carrying flags and playing bass drums.
“I voted for rejection because the Constitution doesn’t say anything about security, and it’s the main problem in this country. Violence has only increased since so many Venezuelans started arriving. This government does not represent me, and this Charter is harmful,” said Carola. Torello, 48, a voter waiting to vote in the late afternoon at a polling center in Las Condes. Sergio Oruño, 35, said he voted for approval because “we have to turn the page on the military regime, fight for a more egalitarian and inclusive country.”
