Chileans vote on Sunday, for the second time in a little over a year, for a new Constitution to replace the one in force since the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. But this time they are deciding on a more conservative text than the current Constitution.
The text submitted to the vote was written by those who defend the legacy of General Pinochet, after the rejection in September 2022 of a first progressive proposal supported by the young left-wing president Gabriel Boric.
The latter, 37, recently assured that this new consultation would be the last attempt to reform the Constitution.
The polls, banned for two weeks, predict a large majority of rejection of the new text, despite a high number of undecided people.
The revision of the Constitution of the Pinochet era (1973-1990), considered as a brake on any fundamental social reform, was enacted to satisfy the social movement of 2019 against inequalities which left around thirty dead. A year later, 80% of Chileans approved the drafting of a new Constitution.
After the rejection of the first proposal, Mr. Boric suffered a new setback in May when the ultra-conservative right came first in the ballot to elect the members who would form the Constitutional Council responsible for drafting the new fundamental law.
“Today we are experiencing a new civic day which, beyond any result, strengthens our democracy,” declared President Boric after voting in his hometown of Punta Arenas (3,000 km south of Santiago).
“Chile,” welcomed the Head of State, “has demonstrated a strength that we should not take for granted, namely that the problems […] are channeled institutionally and resolved peacefully.”
The Republican Party has seduced voters with its uncompromising discourse against insecurity, which it mainly associates with Venezuelan immigration.
The opposition presents Sunday’s vote as a consultation on President Boric, who rode a wave of discontent to be elected at the end of 2021, at the age of 35, as the youngest leader in Chile’s history, but whose popularity is now declining.
The proposed new Constitution reinforces the conservative character of the current text which dates from 1980, particularly on issues such as abortion and public security.
“Dangerous”
The issue of abortion is controversial, “dangerous even”, believes Catalina Lufin, 22, president of the Federation of Students of the University of Chile, because it “takes us backwards in terms of fundamental rights”.
Abortion was completely banned in Chile until 2017 when a law authorized it but only in cases of risk to the life of the mother, rape or a fetus declared non-viable.
The current Constitution “protects the life of the one who is to be born”, but the new text goes beyond, by making the embryo a person, thus making it more difficult to justify an abortion.
The new text, on the other hand, recognizes indigenous peoples for the first time, a long-standing aspiration of indigenous peoples, mainly Mapuche, who represent around 12% of the population, but does not respond to their demand for more autonomy.
Andrès Calfuqueo, political science student of Mapuche origin, assures that the new text does not “represent” him. It “was born from a process that promised to unite Chileans, but ended up dividing them.”
Enthusiasm for a new Constitution has been dampened by the pandemic, inflation and a growing sense among the population of insecurity and weariness.
“There is an atmosphere of disenchantment, of little interest, of little motivation and of fatigue with regard to the constitutional question,” underlines Claudia Heiss, political scientist at the University of Chile. “People want more basic things: they want security, public order, more police on the streets…” she emphasizes.
Voting started at 8 a.m. and ends at 6 p.m. (local time). The results will be known in the evening.