“We are going to present indications to improve the constitutional reform and these indications will go in the correct line, which is the complete opposite of what the political parties indicate”, sentenced the independent senator of the Magallanes region, Karim Bianchi, through a statement.
The legislator indicated that “it cannot be that a President of the Republic says that it does not matter that this is imperfect to continue advancing with something forced, what must be done is respond to the need for changes that Chile has.”
“I’m afraid that what comes out of Congress will be a boomerang for Chile, and then they will blame us again for a process that has already failed. And I don’t know if the country has the possibility of enduring another failure,” the parliamentarian emphasized.
Meanwhile, regarding the battery of indications that will be presented in coordination with the Chamber of Deputies, Senator Bianchi explained that “we must correct that the 24 experts appointed by hand by the political parties on duty have control of the process from its beginning to finish.
“They cannot be the ones responsible for drafting and subsequently correcting the project of the new Constitution, thus delegitimizing the election of Councilors by the citizens,” added the representative of Magallanes.
In addition, Senator Bianchi explained that the Constituent Councilors must be held accountable in their respective districts for both their efforts and the progress of the Council, to avoid repeating scenarios such as those that occurred during the previous convention.
“We must also review the quorums to reject the proposals of the committee of experts (2/3), in the current constitution the supraquorums were eliminated because they are a lock on the reforms, for the same reason citizens have the right to have their representatives have a vote of value,” he added.
Also, the legislator indicated that progress should be made in the participation rights for independent candidates, designing a participation formula that gives them the same conditions as the parties.
Bianchi maintained that the parties dedicated a large section of the reform to regulating electoral financing, with mandatory voting and with a formula that will help them to rescue the largest amount of public funds. “This process cannot be turned into an ATM for the parties.”
“We will delve into the prohibitions for the exercise of public office for Directors and we will substantially revise the number of “experts” and their election formula,” he added.
Finally, Bianchi pointed out that “this constitutional reform project has exacerbated paternalism from the political parties that signed the agreement. “The council of experts is only a facade to be able to control the content of the new constitution project. In short, it is a staging of the parties, which will not give space of time or attributions to develop the original constituent power”.
It is worth mentioning that this Monday the processing of the constitutional reform that enables the new constituent process will begin and although in the Senate it could be an expedited debate, the scenario in the Chamber would be different, since the part of the opposition that did not sign the “Agreement for Chile” is already preparing the offensive to make the debate more complex, through indications and other types of tools that can be used.
“We are not going to give our permission to urgently process a political reform to the detriment of security reforms. We are going to use all the tools that the regulations, the Constitution and the laws give us, and we are going to give our favorable vote to urgently deal with security issues in committee meetings, but not for this political reform,” he told emol the head of the Republican bench, José Meza.
