Chile is voting on whether to adopt a proposed constitution with big changes

9/4/2022

RawNews1st – Chileans voted in a plebiscite Sunday on whether to adopt a far-reaching new constitution that would fundamentally change the South American country.

The proposed charter is intended to replace a constitution imposed by the military dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet 41 years ago.

For months, opinion polls have shown a clear advantage for the rejection camp, but the difference has been narrowing, giving hope to the charter’s supporters that they can pull out a victory.

Hernández said it was “very symbolic and very emotional” to be voting at a stadium that had been used as a detention and torture site during the military dictatorship.

Others, however, remain deeply skeptical of the proposed charter.

“There are other ways and other paths to achieve what people are asking for or what we need as a nation that isn’t simply to change the constitution,” Mabel Castillo, 42, said. “We all need to evolve. I know it’s an ancient constitution that needs changes, but not in the way that is being done today.”

Voting is mandatory in the plebiscite, which climaxes a three-year process that began when the country once seen as a paragon of stability in the region exploded in student-led street protests in 2019.

The unrest was sparked by a hike in public transportation prices, but it quickly expanded into broader demands for greater equality and more social protections.

The following year, just under 80% of Chileans voted in favor of changing the country’s constitution that dates from the country’s 1973-1990 military dictatorship led by Augusto Pinochet.

Then in 2021, they elected delegates to a constitutional convention. Amid the anti-establishment fervor of the time, Chileans largely chose people outside the traditional political establishment to draft the new constitution.

It was the first in the world to be written by a convention split equally between male and female delegates.

Hundreds of thousands of people took over a main avenue in Chile’s capital Thursday night at the closing rally of the pro-charter campaign, a turnout that proponents say shows a level of excitement the polls do not reflect.

“Polls have not been able to capture the new voter, and above all, the young voter,” Loncon said.