Chilean President Gabriel Boric is under investigation by the Comptroller General of the Republic after the opposition made accusations that he was interfering in favor of the “yes” in the campaign for the September 4 referendum, when Chileans will decide whether or not to approve a (very progressive) proposal for a new Constitution for the country.
Chile has as one of the pillars of its policy a principle called dispensation, which establishes that no public official may use public resources or their working hours to favor an electoral option.
Boric’s accusations of electoral interference, for allegedly acting in favor of the “yes”, have several arguments. One of them is a government campaign called “Chile Vota Informado” to publicize the referendum, which includes the distribution of more than 900,000 copies of the text of the proposed new Constitution.
The president of the conservative Uniao Democrática Independente party, Senator Javier Macaya, asked the government for half of this print run to be handed over to the opposition to distribute, but so far he has not received a response.
On Monday (8), Macaya announced the creation of a website for reporting fake news and electoral interference about the referendum. “The government, in its desperation, engaged in a series of interventions and fake news using the resources of all Chileans,” he said.
Last week, the Comptroller General of the Republic notified the General Secretariat of the Presidency (Segpres), after a complaint of electoral interference made by deputy Eric Aedo, of the Christian Democratic Party.
Days earlier, Boric had called on the ruling parties to present proposals, through Segpres, for changes to the Constitution if the “yes” wins in September, which, according to the parliamentarian, would prove that the government has been working to approve the new text.
In the letter to the Controller’s Office in which he asked for an investigation to be opened, Aedo claimed that Boric’s request “is the biggest sign of electoral interventionism I’ve seen since October 1988, in the midst of the dictatorship.” [de Augusto Pinochet]”.
The controller general of Chile, Jorge Bermúdez, said that the investigations aim to “determine the correct use of public resources in this period” and the identification of possible irregularities could generate “a complaint to another institution”. [do Estado chileno] or a judgment of accounts”.
Another fair match between Boric and the Controllership emerged in mid-July, when the president participated in the General Assembly of Municipalities, in which he said that Chilean municipalities must publicize the proposed constitutional change among local populations.
The Comptroller General then replied that “it is not up to the municipalities to report on matters outside their functions, such as the constitutional plebiscite”.
Boric argues that he has sought within the law to inform the Chilean population about the proposed new Magna Carta.
“The waiver required by the Comptroller says that we cannot use public resources to favor one or the other option, but that everyone has the right to express their political position”, he claimed. “We will fulfill the duty to inform, respecting the Comptroller’s determinations.”
While the Comptroller investigates whether Boric’s behavior is electoral interference or not, the rejection of the proposed new Constitution has been leading the polls. The most recent surveys show a ten to twenty percentage point advantage of “no” over “yes”.
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