The President of Chile, Gabriel Boric, shows his ballot before casting his ballot in the election of constitutional advisers who will draft a new proposal in Punta Arenas, Chile. ANDRES POBLETE (AP)
The day that will elect the 50 councilors (25 men and 25 women) who will draft the second Chilean constitutional proposal to bury the Magna Carta inherited from the dictatorship was marked this Sunday by an appeal not to waste the second attempt . Both President Gabriel Boric and former Presidents of various political persuasions have done so. “This time there is no margin for error,” Boric said after voting first thing in the morning in his hometown of Punta Arenas in the far south of the country, alluding to the previous frustrated process. Last September, in a mandatory vote, 62% of citizens rejected the text drafted by a convention dominated by leftists and independents.
“As a country, we have a historic opportunity to reconcile after the fractures we have experienced,” added the 37-year-old left-wing president, who has been in La Moneda for 15 months. Last year’s rejection of the proposed constitution was a blow to the ruling party and the government itself, which had openly advocated a text that would fundamentally transform Chilean institutions. The government has changed its stance 180 degrees in the face of this new attempt, monitoring the election campaign from afar. Boric had also not accepted press inquiries in this regard in the past few weeks.
The gist of the President’s speech was repeated by his predecessors throughout the morning. Former right-wing President Sebastián Piñera asserted that Chile “neither needs nor deserves nor opposes further constitutional failures”. The idea of changing the constitution was the formula political parties found to channel social discontent that erupted in October 2019 during his second term.
Ahead of the vote, Francisco Chahuán, president of Piñera’s Renovación Nacional party, assured that Sunday’s electoral process was a referendum for the Boric government, a statement heavily criticized by the left for misinforming the public, they said Political party . “Let’s just say things as they are. Every time Chileans vote, we evaluate many things. We value the life we lead. But in this case, the most important thing is the life we will have in the future,” said Piñera this Sunday.
Former President Ricardo Lagos, a socialist, called for thinking about the next generation and not about the next political elections. Former President Michelle Bachelet, who once stood as a candidate for that election when the left only presented a list — which it didn’t — encouraged Chileans to vote “not just because it’s compulsory, but because it’s huge is a chance to have a constitution that unites us all”. On the question of whether the result should be interpreted as a referendum for the Boric government, the socialist argued that the “most serious mistake is to mix this process with political contingency”. The former representative of UN Women and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights regretted the scarce information about this election and blamed the political parties and the electoral service Servel.
Despite citizens’ apathy for these elections – interest in the constituent process has fallen from 66% in 2021 to 31% today, according to the Criteria poll – the day was marked by citizens’ courtesy, with long lines they have in one progressed at a good pace. Partly because it is a procedure with automatic registration and mandatory voting, as was the case with last September’s referendum, when turnout reached 85%. “In some very specific cases we have a big traffic jam, but these are situations that have quickly normalized,” said government spokeswoman Camila Vallejo from the Palacio de La Moneda.
About three hours after polling stations closed, Carabineros has reported that police stations have received — virtually and face-to-face — about 112,000 certificates from citizens to excuse themselves from compulsory voting on Election Day. Those unable to pay this Sunday must provide justification to avoid economic sanctions, which can reach as high as $226.
Despite the bourgeois character that marked the day, there were isolated incidents, especially in the south of the country. In the city of Ercilla (in the region of La Araucanía), a group attacked the Carabineros substation with bullets from a car. In Angol prison, in the same region, three officers from the gendarmerie, the service responsible for guarding Chilean prisons, were taken hostage by a group of prisoners.
The first to start counting the votes were locals in the far south of the country, in Magallanes, which is an hour ahead of the rest of mainland Chile. Although turnout is good, the Servel has no projections as voters usually arrive at the polling stations around 6 p.m. (Chilean time).
This afternoon, in La Moneda, the government will convene a political committee to follow the results of the elections – which will be announced around seven in the evening Chilean time – and above all to coordinate a single response of the ruling party involved in this election compete shared by 50 directors.
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