The President of Chile, Gabriel Boricpromised this Sunday to promote a rapid and new constituent process after the overwhelming victory of the “Rejection” to the project of new constitution.
(Read here: Chile overwhelmingly rejects the draft of the new Constitution)
“I promise to do everything on my part to build a new constituent itinerary”, Boric said in a message to the nation after the rapid vote count, which with 99.4 percent of the tables counted, yielded a victory with 61.88 percent of the ‘Rejection’ compared to 38.1 percent of the ‘I approve’.
(See also: President Petro on the results of the plebiscite in Chile: ‘Pinochet revived’)
In a serene tone, Boric, 36, called on the political forces to immediately put “Chile ahead” and asked that the deep discrepancies exposed by the process be respected. But he invited citizens to overcome them and, “now yes, come to an agreement.”
A resounding majority in Chile rejected this Sunday the Constitution proposaln that sought to change the one inherited from the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1989).
More of 15 million voterss they were summoned to the polls on a day with high participation by compulsory voting, of which almost 13 million turned out to voter.
The project maintained a market economy, but aspired to consecrate a new catalog of social rights in the areas of health, abortion, education and pensions, with an environmental emphasis and an indigenous “plurinationality”.
“It is a defeat for the refoundation of Chile,” said Javier Macaya, president of the conservative UDI party, who, however, did not close the door to another constitutional reform.
“We are going to continue (…) with the constituent process, we are going to fulfill our commitment,” he promised at a press conference surrounded by “Rejection” supporters who were celebrating. For his part, former presidential candidate José Antonio Kast told President Boric, with whom he faced off at the polls, that this “defeat is also his defeat.”
The holding of the referendum on a new Magna Carta, after the great social revolt of 2019 in demand for greater social justice, had had the support of almost 80 percent of the electorate in a plebiscite in October 2020 that opened the constitutional process.
Two years later, the ‘Apruebo’ won almost exclusively among a majority of Chileans abroad, where there were some 100,000 registered voters.
The new text, of 388 articles and elaborated during a year by a Constitutional Convention, enshrined a “Social State of Rights”, in response to claims expressed in the massive demonstrations of October 2019.
The results are a blow to the Executive, who had widely supported the new constitutional proposal. With this, the current magna carta remains in force.
We are going to continue (…) with the constituent process, we are going to fulfill our commitment
on the eve, Boric announced that he will call to start from “zero”, with the election of a new convention and the complete drafting of a new text. However, this must be approved by Congress, currently tied in political forces, where there is no agreement on the terms of another constitutional process.
In full scrutiny, the local press revealed that Boric called the leaders of all political parties to a meeting today at the Palacio de La Moneda (seat of government) to analyze the results.
It is not clear how the process will continue, because this wide advantage in favor of the ‘Rejection’ leaves its defenders – the right and the center-left, which has articulated itself outside their parties – in an unbeatable position to negotiate their convictions. .
On the international scene, one of the first to react to the preliminary results was the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, who briefly stated on his Twitter account: “Pinochet revived.” “Only if the democratic and social forces unite, it will be possible to leave behind a past that stains all of Latin America and open the democratic alamedas,” Petro added in his account.
For his part, former President Iván Duque also spoke through that social network. “The Chilean people spoke on a beautiful democratic day. Good sense triumphed over ideological impositions that would forever fracture a society that has achieved important social and economic achievements,” Duque wrote.
So was the day
The truth is that the day this Sunday passed in an atmosphere of tranquility. The local press recorded a massive turnout at the voting centers, an image that mainly marked the first hours of the day of the crucial mandatory referendum.
Inside and outside the polling stations, the feeling was one of joy, with long lines and a fluid process that avoided exposure to the sun, on a hot day, especially in the capital, where the largest number of the census was concentrated.
It should be noted that, for the first time in more than a decade, voting was mandatory under penalty of a maximum fine of 180,000 pesos (about 200 dollars).
Of the national authorities, one of the first to approach the polls was Boric, who did so in Punta Arenas, his hometown, along with his parents, his partner, Iriana Karamanos, and one of his two brothers.
The earliest riser, however, was former progressive president Michelle Bachelet, who voted at the Chilean consulate in Geneva (Switzerland), where she was registered as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, a position she left just last week. Bachelet was the only one of Chile’s former presidents who openly confirmed her vote in favor of ‘I Approve’.
INTERNATIONAL WRITING
*With AFP and Efe
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