SANTIAGO, Sept 4 —Chileans will head to the polls today to approve or reject a progressive new constitution that would replace its current market-friendly text dating back to the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship.
The new text is the result of an agreement reached to quell violent protests against inequality in 2019 and focuses on social rights, the environment, gender equality and indigenous rights.
While nearly 80 per cent of Chileans voted to draft a new constitution in late 2020, polls show public support for the new text has dropped amid fear of certain proposals and controversies surrounding the constituents elected to draft it.
The number of voters planning to vote no on the new text first surpassed the yes vote in April and has kept a varying lead. The latest polls before a two-week blackout show the no vote ahead with 47 per cent compared with 38 per cent for yes and 17 per cent undecided.
But unlike previous elections, this vote is mandatory, adding another layer of uncertainty according to experts.
“That’s probably the biggest uncertainty, a lot of people like to extrapolate results from polls,” Rossana Castiglioni, a professor of political science at Diego Portales University, noting that only 43 per cent of the population turned out to elect constituents to draft the new text.
“But the truth is we know relatively little from this 50 per cent, from this half of the population that abstains from electoral processes.” More than 15 million Chileans and residents are eligible to vote across more than 3,000 voting centres.
Polls will close at 6 p.m. but stay open for voters waiting in line. Chile’s election agency expects to have results within a few hours.
If the text is approved, the ruling coalition has already agreed to modify the text and 57 transitory norms will help guide the transition from one constitution to the next.
If the text is rejected, President Gabriel Boric has said the process should restart to fulfil the mandate given by the 2020 vote to draft a new constitution. Other political figures have said the current constitution should be amended given recent legislative changes to lower majorities needed to do so. — Reuters
