On Sunday in Chile, there was a vote to elect the 50 members who will form the Constitutional Council, the body that will have to discuss, modify and approve the new Chilean Constitution proposal: the winner was the list of the Republican Party of José Antonio Kast, of the extreme right, obtaining almost 35 percent of the votes and 33 seats out of 50, well over half.
The Constitution that the Constitutional Council will examine should replace the 1980 one adopted at the time of the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. It is the second time that Chile has tried to change it: the first attempt, which failed, was by the current leftist president Gabriel Boric. In the new process to rewrite the Constitution, however, politicians and parties will have greater power. Kast, the leader of the right-wing list that won Sunday’s elections, had reached the second round of the presidential elections which in 2021 ended with Boric’s victory.
The 33 seats obtained by Kast’s list are more than the three-fifths required to be able to approve changes to the proposed Constitution that the Council will receive by 7 June. They were obtained in part by the Republican Party alone (22 seats) and in part by Cile Sicuro, the bloc of traditional right-wing parties, which obtained 11 seats. The other 17 were obtained by Unity for Chile, the bloc formed by left-wing parties that support Boric, and by one of the three independent candidates outside the lists belonging to Chilean indigenous peoples.
The result of Sunday’s vote is indicative of a rightward shift in Chilean politics, in some ways unexpected considering how much Chile had changed with the huge protests of 2019: precisely from those protests, which began due to the increase in the subway ticket in the capital Santiago and then expanded, a new young and leftist leadership had emerged, from which Boric himself comes. Taking advantage of the enthusiasm that had led him to win the elections, Boric had tried to change the constitution last year but his proposal was considered too ambitious and progressive by a part of the electorate.
– Read also: Why the Constitution in Chile was rejected
A commission of 24 experts appointed by the Chilean Congress has been working on the proposed constitution since January: 12 women and 12 men who reflect the balance of the various parties within parliament. They will have to take into account 12 basic principles pre-agreed with the parties, even if according to the deputies of the left these principles are too reminiscent of the structure of the Constitution currently in force, that of the dictatorship.
After examination and any changes made by the Constitutional Council, the definitive text of the proposal will be delivered to the president on October 21 and voted on in a referendum by the end of the year.
– Read also: Chile and its Constitution, again
