[With 96% of the ballots counted, the rejection camp has 62% and
the approve team accept defeat in bid to replace Pinochet-era
settlement]
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CHILE VOTES OVERWHELMINGLY TO REJECT NEW, PROGRESSIVE CONSTITUTION  
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John Bartlett
September 4, 2022
The Guardian
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_ With 96% of the ballots counted, the rejection camp has 62% and the
approve team accept defeat in bid to replace Pinochet-era settlement _


Campaigners opposed to the new constitution celebrate victory in
Santiago, Chile., Pablo Sanhueza/Reuters

 

Chileans have voted comprehensively against a new, progressive
constitution that had been drafted to replace the 1980 document
written under Gen Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship.

With 99.9% of the votes counted in Sunday’s plebiscite, the
rejection camp had 61.9% support compared with 38.1% for approval amid
what appeared to be a heavy turnout with long lines at polling states.
Voting was mandatory.

Senator Ximena Rincón, one of the leaders of the reject campaign,
described the victory as “clear and emphatic”, and called for a
new constitutional convention to be convened.

The “approve” campaign has accepted defeat and the country’s
36-year-old president, Gabriel Boric, has already called a meeting of
party leaders for Monday morning at La Moneda, the presidential
palace.

Chile’s president, Gabriel Boric, speaks to the nation on Sunday
night. Photograph: Marcelo Segura/Chilean Presidency/AFP/Getty Images

“I commit to put my all into building a new constitutional itinerary
alongside congress and civil society,” said Boric in a televised
address to the nation, confirming that he would meet with the heads of
political parties and both chambers of congresson Monday morning.

The 1980 document drawn up under Pinochet will now remain in force and
Chile’s future looks decidedly uncertain.

In 2020, an initial plebiscite saw nearly 80% of voters opt to draft a
new constitution, but after an arduous year of negotiations, people
appear to have expressed their dissatisfaction with the end product.

As results trickled in and the reject camp’s lead grew, groups of
jubilant reject supporters crowded street corners and filled squares
up and down the country to celebrate their victory.

There were concerns that disgruntled approve supporters could stage a
repeat of the 2019 demonstrations that started the constitutional
reform process
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But a crowd of no more than several hundred gathered in the main
square in Santiago and they were quickly dispersed by police using
water cannons and tear gas.

People supporting the new constitution draft accept defeat in
Santiago. Photograph: Javier Torres/AFP/Getty Images

The proposed constitution included a long list of social rights and
guarantees that had appeared to respond to the demands of that vast
social movement.

It enshrined gender parity across government and other organs of the
state – for the first time anywhere in the world – prioritised
environmental protection and recognised Chile’s Indigenous peoples
for the first time in the country’s history.

The decision to reject a constitution that guaranteed women’s rights
and gender parity was made 70 years to the day since women were first
given the vote in Chile.

“This is a badly written constitution,” said Carmen Fuentes, 61,
who cast her vote in a wealthy north-eastern suburb of Santiago.
“There’s been a division in this country for a long time, and this
plebiscite won’t change that.”

Many criticised the document’s guarantees for Indigenous people,
which they said would divide Chile. Others warned that the shakeup of
the political system was unnecessary and experimental.

In the centre of the city, others were more optimistic that a change
could be possible, citing the need to shed Chile of the Pinochet-era
constitution and the model it enshrined, moving on to a more
egalitarian, democratic future.

But that future now looks distant. Boric has expressed a willingness
to repeat the constitutional process, but the basis for reform is
still very much up for debate.

Some of the constitution’s most prominent critics have mooted
allowing congress to reform the 1980 document or including experts in
a new process, but details were light from both sides, with neither
willing to commit to a possible way forward.

_I am JOHN BARTLETT, a British multimedia journalist covering the
politics, cultures and histories of Latin America from Santiago,
Chile._

_MY WRITING [[link removed]] has been featured with
The Guardian [[link removed]], The
New York Times, The Economist, BBC News, The Times, The Washington
Post, The Telegraph, Foreign Policy, Americas Quarterly, Thomson
Reuters Foundation, PRI’s The World, NBC Latino and PBS._

_I have given LIVE ANALYSIS AND COMMENT
[[link removed]] on television in both English and
Spanish for CNN Chile, ChileVisión, France24, DW English, TRT World
and i24News; on radio for KCBS, LBC, TalkRADIO, RTE, Global News
Toronto and several regional outlets in Chile; and given podcast
interviews including for AS/COA’s Latin America in Focus._

_I launched MIRADAS [[link removed]] in July 2019,
a podcast that focuses on the politics, current affairs and cultures
of Latin America._

_I have worked as an ANALYST OF ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL AFFAIRS in
Latin America and beyond for the Economist Intelligence Unit, Oxford
Business Group, Latin News, the International Institute for Strategic
Studies and Critical Resource._

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* Chile
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* Elections
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* Constitution
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* Indigenous Rights
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* women's rights
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* gender equality
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* Augusto Pinochet
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