The National Television Council (CNTV) referred to the reform that enables the constituent process and clarified that it does not contemplate a television slot for the election of the members of the next Constitutional Council, which is dated May 7, 2023. However, the regulations do establish electoral propaganda for the December 17 plebiscite.
Specifically, the CNTV maintained that “the constitutional reform that approves this new process makes the rules of Law 18,700 for the election of senators applicable to the election of the members of the Constitutional Council.”
In its article 32, the legal body indicates that “free reception television channels must allocate thirty minutes of their broadcasts free of charge to electoral propaganda in the cases of election of the President of the Republic, of deputies and senators, only of deputies or of national plebiscites, not explicitly contemplating the election of only senators”.
Reinforcing the above, the Council complements that “this situation differs from the process initiated in 2019, since the constitutional reform law No. 21,200 provided that for the election of the constituent conventions the rules related to the election of deputies would be applicable to them, hypothesis that is provided for in article 31 of Law No. 18,700, all this, for the election ‘only of deputies'”.
“Since the CNTV is an autonomous body of the State, it must be governed by the principle of legality and, consequently, it cannot be attributed powers that are not given to it by law, such as organizing an electoral strip in this case,” the agency added.
On the other hand, the CNTV concluded by explaining that “the recently approved constitutional reform (Law No. 21,533), therefore, does make explicit the holding of an electoral slot on freely-received television for the plebiscite set for December 17, 2023 “.
It should be remembered that this coming Sunday, May 7, the election of 50 citizens will be held who will discuss, draft and approve a proposed text of the New Constitution. Meanwhile, the representatives of the Committee of Experts will be elected by Congress. Of the 24, 12 will be elected by the Lower House and the other 12 by the Senate.
? In the face of various inquiries, we make it explicit that the reform that enables the constituent process does not contemplate a television slot for the election of the Constitutional Council in May. This regulation does establish a time slot for the plebiscite on December 17. pic.twitter.com/QVDLA8ysdd
– CNTVChile (@CNTVChile) January 19, 2023
