SANTIAGO, Chile- The rejection of the proposal for a new constitution was imposed this Sunday in the exit plebiscite in Chile, according to the preliminary results of the Electoral Service (Servel) of Chile.
With 22.69% of the votes counted so far, rejection has 63.41% of preferences, compared to 36.59% approval.
What’s next now?
President Gabriel Boric announced on July 15 that he would call for starting from “zero” if he won the rejection option, with the election of a new Convention and the complete drafting of a new text.
According to Boric, the plebiscite that enabled this first constitutional process, in which 78% of Chileans approved reforming the Magna Carta, ended up definitively burying Pinochet’s Constitution.
“If we win the rejection alternative, what will happen is that we will have to prolong this process for another year and a half, where everything will have to be discussed again from scratch,” said Boric, who had avoided speaking. of alternative plans before the referendum.
“The constituent process, in case it wins the rejection, has to continue in the terms decided by the people of Chile (…), not hoard (perfect) the constitution that is there,” the president stated.
An eventual proposal for a new Constitution must, however, go through Congress, currently tied in political forces, where there is no agreement on the terms of another constitutional process or conditions that were very popular among citizens, such as the inclusion of parity of genders and indigenous seats, something that at the moment more conservative leaders are not willing to consider.
Under the slogan “reject to reform”, supporters of this option promised to advance amendments to the current Magna Carta. To do this, they promoted a law in Congress that lowers the quorum in order to modify it.
“They took up many issues that the draft constitution reveals, but what they have proposed is like a list of intentions that is not clear how they are going to articulate it. In addition, in its historical trajectory, the Chilean right has not been available to reform the Constitution Osorio said.
But there are other groups in favor of rejection that seek the drafting of a new Constitution and have called for “a (new) one that unites us.”
With information from AFP and Reuters
