The Commission of Constitutional Experts unanimously approved the first preliminary norms that will integrate the draft of the proposal for a new Constitution of Chile, after last week the body finished drafting the articles.
Of the 14 chapters that make up the index of the draft Constitution, this Monday the green light was given to three: Fundamentals of the Constitutional Order; Fundamental rights and freedoms, guarantees and constitutional duties; and Political representation and participation.
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Each chapter, which is voted on in a general way this week and, later, in a particular way, has to be approved by 3/5 of the 24 commissioners, that is, it needs 14 votes from the plenary session to then be sent to each subcommittee, where it is it will be discussed in particular and the amendments will be entered, which will then also have to be validated by the plenary session of experts.
“There are challenges pending for the period of amendments, which is why we must make a greater effort in terms of guaranteeing essentiality, so that the rights that have been protected in full can be duly protected and the regulations are not programmatic or merely declarative.” said the National Renewal (RN) expert Marcela Peredo.
Some of the norms proposed in the Political System Commission, for example, go through establishing an electoral threshold of 5% so that the parties can access Congress; limit re-election to two non-consecutive terms; reinforce political parties or penalize wayward parliamentarians, among others.
“I want to highlight the strengthening of political parties, understanding that they play a fundamental role in representative democracy, as mediators between the State and citizens,” said Antonia Rivas, an expert from Apruebo Dignidad.
The proposed norms of the 14 chapters were drawn up in the respective commissions, with great reserve and within a period of 15 days, unlike the previous constituent process, in which the drafting in the commissions lasted 5 months.
The articles that emerged from this brief process are the result of the consensus of the experts, who face the challenge of dispatching the entire draft standard in two months to deliver the text to the Constitutional Council that will be elected on May 7.
The Committee of Experts was installed on March 6 after being appointed by Congress (12 were chosen by the Chamber of Deputies and 12 by the Senate) and is in charge of preparing a draft of a new Constitution in three months that will serve as a based on the directors who will be elected in the fifth month of the year at the polls.
The elected Constitutional Council may approve or reject the proposals of the experts and the text that results from this process will have to be approved, finally, by the citizens in a plebiscite with mandatory voting on December 17.
The group of experts, one of the novelties of this new process, generates a certain reluctance in sectors of society, fearful that Parliament will “protect” the drafting of the new Constitution.
Despite the rejection in the September plebiscite, there is a consensus on the need to replace the current Constitution, although there is a certain “constituent fatigue” and the new process does not arouse the same interest as the previous one.
Expert Approved Chapters
During the discussion of the norms of chapter I, Fundamentals of the constitutional order, the importance of the proposals and the pending challenges were exposed, together with the minimum consensus reached, highlighting the importance of the social and democratic State of law, gender parity and recognition of indigenous peoples, among other aspects.
Regarding the social and democratic rule of law, the Socialist Party (PS) expert Flavio Quezada highlighted its value in society and importance in the new constitutional text. On the same topic, the commissioner supported by RN Jaime Arancibia valued the constitutional scenario and the importance of social coverage in various areas of today’s society.
The concept of family was another of the points of debate, included in the first chapter, where Commissioner Rivas made the point of “talking about the multiplicity of families” in the constitutional text. For his part, the UDI commissioner Hernán Larraín, explained that “we are building a society from the people and not from the State.”
In the discussion of the first section, the recognition of indigenous peoples was also addressed, an occasion where the expert sponsored by the PPD Verónica Undurraga highlighted the constitutional rank that should be granted to them and announced that “we will promote an amendment to include indigenous seats in the National Congress ”. On the same subject, the trade union commissioner Máximo Pavéz indicated that it is an outstanding debt, under the concept of a single nation and the institutionality that will protect their rights.
During the debate and vote on the articles of Chapter II: Fundamental Rights and Freedoms, Constitutional Guarantees and Duties, the members of the Expert Commission stressed that it was essential to have a chapter on civil and political rights, highlighting the consensus to include the right to life , personal integrity, equality before the law, personal freedom and individual security, the right to sexuality and reproduction, the right of children and adolescents, the right to culture, among others.
Faced with the matter, the commissioner of RD Domingo Lovera, listed the scope of action and importance of the articles included in the second chapter. In the same way, the commissioner of RN Catalina Salem, celebrated that they have been considered social rights that are the ones that matter most to citizens, and that the legislator will have the task of articulating them.
For their part, the interventions during the debate in the plenary session of the commissioners regarding Chapter III, Political Representation and Participation, were focused on highlighting the importance and value of political representation, whatever the electoral system in force, which supposes a “correlative” with the community, since the assignment of positions of popular election should be a significant sample or portion of the composition of each society. The parties are recognized as having a key role in democracy and the criteria of women’s participation in the different instances of power are also incorporated.
In this line, the commissioner of Evópoli Sebastián Soto, addressed the political parties, their regulatory framework and their actions in the face of the challenges that current society proposes and the commissioner of the PS Catalina Lagos, highlighted the challenges of parity in political parties.
The Expert Committee developed between 3:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m., where the favorable vote of 3/5 was required for the favorable approval of the proposals for constitutional norms; however, these were ratified unanimously by its 24 members.
