SANTIAGO, May 7 (Portal) – Chilean right-wing parties won a majority of votes on Sunday to elect advisers to draft a new constitution, marking a sharp departure from a progressive majority that drafted a failed first amendment.
With 95.13% of the votes cast, the Chilean Republican Party, led by former conservative presidential candidate Jose Antonio Kast, secured almost 35% of the vote.
A separate coalition of traditional right-wing parties received just over 20% of the vote, while President Gabriel Boric’s left-wing coalition received about 29%. The centrist parties got the rest of the votes.
“Today is the first day of a brighter future, a new beginning for Chile,” Kast, who lost to Boric in 2021, said at a speech in Santiago. “Chile defeated a failed government.”
The final results will determine the exact composition of a 50-seat Constitutional Council that will be responsible for drafting a new constitution. Articles must be approved by a three-fifths majority.
This is the latest step in years of efforts to overhaul the country’s dictatorship-era text after nearly 80% of Chileans voted to draft a new constitution in 2020 following violent protests over inequality.
Constitutional advisers elected on Sunday will begin drafting a new constitution in June based on a draft prepared by 24 constitutional experts appointed by Congress in March. Voters will then accept or reject the new proposal in December.
Drafted by largely independent and left-wing voters, the first rewrite focused on social benefits, environmental rights, gender parity and indigenous rights.
It was considered one of the most progressive constitutions in the world, but many voters found it too polarizing and the process was marred by controversy.
Boric, who took office last March, rose to power on a surge of optimism about the reform, but his approval ratings have since fallen as a struggling economy and rising crime have become voters’ top concerns.
Boric also suffered a political defeat after backing the first revision, which was rejected by almost 62% of voters. The President has since distanced himself from the process but vowed to support it.
“The government will not interfere in the process and will respect the entity’s autonomy in its deliberations,” Boric told reporters on Sunday morning after the vote, adding that the government would act as a guarantor and support proposals from the new council.
After Kast’s victory speech, Boric spoke from the La Moneda presidential palace in Santiago, calling for unity and urging the opposition to learn from the previous failed attempt.
“I would like to urge the Republican Party, which won an undeniable majority, not to make the same mistakes that we made,” Boric said. “This process cannot be about vendettas, it can be about putting Chile first.”
Reporting by Alexander Villegas and Natalia Ramos; Editing by Lisa Shumaker
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