SANTIAGO ( Associated Press) — Chile’s constitutional convention on Tuesday concluded the final vote on the project for a new constitution that will be presented to Chile next week and that seeks to replace the existing fundamental law imposed by military dictatorships from 1973 to 1990. tries.
The project must be approved or rejected in a mandatory referendum on 4 September.
Initially, the 154 members of the Convention were to rule on about half a thousand signs, which they estimated would take about three days, but since most were withdrawn, work on Tuesday was reduced to a few hours. was given.
Finally, the Convention was reduced from 499 articles to less than 390 after the reconciliation commission adjusted the text to be more coherent and better formatted.
The board of the convention will deliver the proposed text to President Gabriel Boric next Monday, at a ceremony in which the president will sign the decree calling the referendum.
On the same Monday the Constitutional Convention will be dissolved and many of its 154 members have declared their intention to spread across the country to explain the contents of the proposed text to replace the current constitution imposed by the dictatorship in 1981, No voter registered after a referendum.
The text of the constitutional draft states that “Chile is a social and democratic state. And moreover, it is multinational, intercultural and ecological”.
Among the new rights, text 11 recognizes the existence of native peoples, proposes two justice systems, one for the national and the other for the natives, to usurp lands, return of autonomous indigenous territories; gender equality in all public and semi-public bodies; “The right to decent and adequate housing” and equal remuneration for work done by men or women.
The people of Chile must “approve” or “reject” the referendum. If “approval” wins, many of the criteria proposed by the Convention will have to be translated into laws that specify the articles. If a “disapproval” is imposed, a process of uncertainty opens up as the opposition talks about applying the original law, but there is no motion specifying what they propose to change.
In the middle of the month, a face-to-face survey by the Center for Public Studies (CEP), the most respected in the market, showed a virtual technical tie between “approval” and “reject”, up 25% and 27%, respectively. Its senior researcher, Aldo Mascareno, said the figures, plus 37% who declared themselves undecided, “show that the expectations placed in the constitutional process have not been met.”
The Presidency’s minister, Giorgio Jackson, acknowledged over the weekend that “what we have seen is a very poor evaluation of what the process has been, the traditional ones and the episodes that have happened. A lot of media coverage because it has been a transparent process.” Is.”
Two other weekly surveys show trends in favor of “rejection”. For example, last Sunday’s Espacio Publico study showed that rejection rose five points over seven days, placing it at 51%, while intention of acceptance fell one point and remained at 33%.
