The rejection of the new Constitution of Chile was imposed with 61.87% of valid votes of this Sunday’s plebiscite against 38.13% favorable to approvalwhen 99.86% of the official count had been completed.
After knowing the result, the president Gabriel Boric called on political leaders to listen “the voice of the people”, which was expressed “strongly and clearly” in the consultation, and he anticipated that he will make changes in his cabinet.
At the same time, he summoned leaders of the political parties and of the two chambers of Congress to analyze this Monday afternoon the continuity of the constitutional process.
“You have to listen to the voice of the people; this decision requires our institutions to work until arrive at a proposal that interprets us allthat gives confidence”, affirmed the president in a message to the country.
“This decision requires our institutions and political actors to Let’s work harder, with more dialogue, with more respect and affection, until we arrive at a proposal that interprets us allthat gives us confidence, that unites us as a country,” he said.
The president added: “We must be self-critical; Chilean men and women have demanded a new opportunity to meet and we must live up to this call; We cannot let time pass or get involved in controversies, I call on all political forces to do everything on their part”.
On the other hand, Boric announced that he will cabinet changes: “Facing these important and urgent challenges will require prompt adjustments in our government teams, to face this new period with renewed vigor,” he said.
Earlier, after the first official results were known, leaders in favor of approval admitted defeat.
“We are shocked, sad, but we naturally concede defeat; is a voice that spoke very cleanly and that we must listen with humility and gratitude”, affirmed the president of the Social Green Regionalist Federation (FRVS, ruling party), Flavia Torrealba.
“Pinochet’s Constitution is buried, the process continues; we are going to a second stage of this conversation”he added.
Also, the ex-conventional Bárbara Sepúlveda, of the Communist Party, said that “Chile is going to have a new Constitution; sooner or later, the democratic decision of the people is going to manifest again and that process is going to represent the great majorities”.
Vlado Mirosevićof the Liberal Party, also recognized the defeat of the Approval and warned that “this does not mean that it has been a rejection of the government, much less the process of the new Constitution.”
Instead, the also ex-conventional Rodrigo Mayorga was less optimistic: “Today the constituent process that began in 2019 is ending; it ends without a text, because that is how Chile has decided, ”he wrote on Twitter.
“Any new process now depends on our Congress, or at least 4/7 of its members, they now have the responsibility for this historic moment,” he added.
In the meantimesympathizers of rejection celebrated in caravans of cars, which had taken to the streets of different sectors of the capital and other cities in the country, with Chilean flags and honks.
“This is the victory not of Chile Vamos, but of common sense,” said the president of the Pinochet Independent Democratic Union (UDI), Javier Macayafrom one of the reject commands.
“More than a celebration, I am reassured that the citizens have made themselves clear: Chile wants a new Constitution, but a good Constitution,” said the senator. Matthias Walkera supporter of the rejection despite belonging to the Christian Democratic Party, which lined up behind the approval.
“We have a new opportunity and we cannot miss it; tonight we want to call for the election of a new convention that corrects the errors of the past, we cannot repeat the errors that confronted us”, said the senator and former president of the Senate Ximena Rinconalso a Christian Democrat in favor of rejection.
Chileans went to the polls this Sunday to decide in a plebiscite whether they approved or rejected the draft Constitution prepared in order to replace the current Magna Carta, sanctioned during the last dictatorship (1973-90). Polls predicted majority disapproval.
The expectation was enormous, not only because of the transcendence of the decision, but also because, unlike the general elections -which are usually attended by around half of the electoral roll-, this time the vote was mandatory for around 15 million registered citizens.
Mass attendance and demonstrations
In fact, 99.86% of the tables already scrutinized gathered just over 13 million votes, of which 97.86% were valid and only 2.14% were null or blank.
For this reason, the voting centers were subject to a unusually large turnout and the streets, the scene of an effervescence rarely seen on election days, without altering the climate of normality, except for an incident that, in any case, the authorities did not assure was linked to the plebiscite.
It was the attack with explosives on a high-voltage electricity tower, in the southern region of Biobío, confirmed by the Undersecretary of the Interior, Manuel Monsalvewho clarified that the origin of the attack had not yet been revealed.
“The preliminary information is of the fall of a high tension tower, apparently due to an explosive device that ends up damaging one of the support cables; it is a tower that falls but the cables generate the affectation of two other adjoining towers; we hope to have certainty once the specialized unit arrives,” said the official.
The streets of Santiago showed a great vehicular traffic in the surroundings of the voting centers, since despite the fact that public transport was free, the vast majority came to vote in their own cars.
In one of the main and largest voting centers in the capital, the Monumental Stadium, where the popular soccer team of Colo Colo is home, the arrival of people was constant and several polling station officials told Télam that the number of voters had increased considerably compared to previous elections.
What did the Chilean men and women vote?
Currently, Chile is governed by the 1980 Constitution, sanctioned during the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet, which had an important reform in 2005, during the government of constitutional President Ricardo Lagos.
However, that text was the center of citizen demands in the social outbreak of October 2019, which led to an agreement between almost all political sectors to draft a new Magna Carta.
https://t.co/Z1y7owztbI pic.twitter.com/20CXH5Gkts
— Electoral Service (@ServelChile) September 5, 2022
The proposal for a new Constitution, written by 154 conventional constituents elected with the participation of the native peoples, sought to establish a welfare state in the country in its 388 articles.
Among the main changes, it postulated that Chile would go from being a “democratic republic” to a “parity democracy”, ensuring that women occupy at least 50% of all state bodies.
It also sought to define the country as a plurinational and intercultural State, with the recognition of 11 peoples, who would have their respective indigenous regional autonomy and legal systems of indigenous peoples with respect to the Constitution.
The text rejected this Sunday proposed changes in the political system, such as the introduction of a re-election for the president, the elimination of the Senate and its replacement by a “chamber of the regions” with less power than that and the power to make limited laws to regional agreements, and greater attributions to the Chamber of Deputies.
