The Chilean Chamber of Deputies approved this Wednesday by a large majority and in the last step the constitutional reform that enables the process to draft a new Constitution throughout this year.
By 109 votes in favor, 37 against and 2 abstentions, the deputies approved the reform amidst applause, which establishes that the new body that will draft the proposal for the Basic Law will be made up of 50 people elected by the citizens and will have the support of a committee of experts appointed by Congress.
As the reform was approved without changes during its parliamentary process, the itinerary for a new constituent process will be the same as the one signed last December after three intense months of negotiations by 14 parties, from the conservative Independent Democratic Union (UDI) to the Partido Communist.
The votes against came mainly from lawmakers from the far-right Republican Party and the liberal People’s Party, who did not participate in last year’s negotiations.
“The fact that there is a group of parliamentarians who disagree with the constitutional reform project should not be surprised or dramatized because in a democracy this is what happens: majorities prevail, but minorities are respected,” said the minister. Secretary General of the Presidency, Ana Lya Uriarte.
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This is how the process will work
Unlike the previous attempt, where the draft was drafted by a parity convention of 154 members elected by popular vote and with indigenous reserved quotas, this new bet has three organs; one of them elected by popular vote. Chileans will elect a 50-member Constitutional Council on May 7.
But there will also be two instances appointed by Congress, whose composition has been questioned by critics of this project.
The Commission of Experts will write a draft that will be discussed in the elected body and the Admissibility Technical Committee that will guarantee that the articles do not contravene the so-called “Fundamental Bases”.
(Also: How will the new Chilean Constitution be written after the first failure?)
The election of the members of the Constitutional Council will not count this time with lists of independents. The composition of the three bodies, meanwhile, will be equal.
To approve the regulations and the articles, the favorable vote of three fifths of the directors will be required and not the two thirds of the previous process.
“This quite reasonable figure is reached, which generates certain guarantees from the legal and political point of view, guarantees for the participation of the National Congress, which will have the mission of electing the Committee of Experts,” said Sebastián Zárate, a professor of the Autonomous University.
The process should end in December with a ratification plebiscite.
Red lines
The most substantial difference is the 12 “Fundamental Bases”, unchangeable and that must be included in the new Magna Carta, established before the process began: like that Chile is a “democratic Republic” with a “unitary and decentralized” character.
Indigenous peoples are recognized “as part of the Chilean Nation, which is one and indivisible,” which prevents Chile from being declared a “plurinational” state, as the rejected project did.
(You can read: Chile embarks on another constitutional process to have a new Magna Carta)
It also establishes the national emblems (flag, shield and anthem), and the existence of three separate powers: Executive, Judicial and Legislative, with a Senate and a Chamber of Deputies.
In the rejected proposal the “Justice Systems” were established and the Senate was replaced by a “Chamber of the Regions”. It also determines the autonomy of the Central Bank and the Comptroller General, among other institutions.
INTERNATIONAL WRITING
*With information from AFP and EFE
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