The COVID-19 pandemic changed the way of working and, from a mostly face-to-face system, several places had to adapt – when possible – to remote work, to avoid contagion and comply with the capacity established by the Ministry of Health. Now that the emergency has advanced, over time, in most cases, a hybrid system has been maintained. And this has also happened in the Constitutional Convention (CC), where some have chosen to attend sessions remotely, whether for health issues, distance or other reasons, although several rooms have been arranged in person to respect the gauges.
Transparency open data that the Convention has available on its website, account for 60 plenary sessions, ranging from July 4 – when the CC was installed – until February 25 of this year, when they were already registered the first votes in particular of the initiatives emanating from the commissions and that will be part of the draft of the new Constitution. During this time, intense voting and deliberation work has been carried out, but also negotiations, agreements and corridor conversations, which have been key to unlocking the knots that have been registered within the constituent body.
According to the data, attendance levels are high, and more than 60% of constituents have never missed plenary sessions. The one who registers the most absences is the machi Francisca Linconao (PP.OO.), who registers 9, and in her team they assure that she presented licenses for those absences. They continue with 6 Bessy Gallardo (Ind.) and Teresa Marinovic (Ind.-Republican Party).
Remote assistance has been used by virtually all constituents; however, there are those who have exceeded 50% attendance on-line or, put another way, they have attended less than half of the plenary sessions in person, despite the safeguards that the CC has taken in terms of health.
At ranking of telematic assistance is the constituent Rodrigo Logan, independent of the Approval Collective, who, from 60 sessions, has attended 42 remotely and only 18 in person, concentrated in the first weeks of operation of the Convention. Consulted in this regard, the conventional member pointed out, with documents in hand, that he complies with all the constituent tasks, that he has attended 100% of the sessions and the voting. “I do the trick,” said the lawyer, emphasizing that he does not have legal advisors, so he does all the work of consolidating proposals and voting, forecasting initiatives, distributing initiatives by commissions, among others, which he claims to share with their co-workers. He emphasized that it is not that he attends remotely because he is lazy, but rather to make better use of the time that he would use in transfers and breaks, also emphasizing that he has participated in all the votes that have been carried out in plenary.
A few weeks ago, the PC’s constituent, Bárbara Sepúlveda, wrote on Twitter: “I don’t understand how no one has asked for transparency how many times the conventional Logan has come to work in person.”
I do not understand how no one has asked for transparency how many times the conventional Logan has come to work in person.
– Barbara Sepúlveda Hales (@BSepulvedaHales) February 16, 2022
Logan was one of the familiar faces from day one in the CC, thanks to his appearances on television, and during the first half of the Convention he managed to move between different groups, given the opportunity that his status as an independent and lawyer gave him. He has not been exempt from controversy, because shortly after the work of the Convention began, a formalization of a false contract came to light (which he denied doing), he was accused of micro-machismo by an official and a letter was sent for what before the then president of the table, Elisa Loncon. As for his votes, an Unholster study, through its Constituent Scanner platform, placed his votes closer to those carried out by the center-right, despite the fact that Logan has insisted on his position as a center within the Collective of Approval, integrated by various figures from the former Concertación.
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Second is the constituent Renato Garin (Ind.-PR), who has 38 remote assists, 22 face-to-face, without absences. The former deputy told The counter that “my attendance is 100% both in the Convention and in the Congress. It happens that at the beginning I preferred to work telematically. In commission, I connect early from the car and then I enter in person when I arrive in Santiago”.
Garín, who entered a quota of the Radical Party, did not align himself with the natural partners of that sector, such as the former Concertación, nor with the Socialist Collective, and distanced himself considerably from the Broad Front, a sector to which he once belonged, being critical of some proposals emanating from that space. He joined the Plurinational and Popular Coordinator, a benchmark made up of representatives of native peoples and former members of the People’s List. At the end of July last year he had a impasse with Logan and reported him to the body’s Ethics Commission for libel. This, after the formalization of Logan was made public, who in turn accused at that time a political operation insinuating a certain participation of Garín. “Mr. Logan clearly accuses me of two false, insulting and seriously attacking behaviors against my honor and public reputation (…), without honesty, without good faith and falsely,” he stated in a document.
Followed by the constituent Philip Harbor (PPD), part of the Colectivo del Apuebo, with 37 remote connections, 23 in person and without absences. Asked about this situation and his reasons, former Senator Harboe replied that “I have 100% attendance and we work very hard. I have been with some health problems, which has prevented me from attending in person as much as I wanted, but even so, I have also been in sessions at collective meetings and with others”.
In July, a study was also published on the votes and abstentions of constituents in the first 100 votes of the CC. According to information released by academic and political scientist Claudio Fuentes, from Platform Context, Harboe did not vote in 81 of those rounds. According to the former senator, during that period the remote voting system was not yet enabled, at a time when he was quarantined for 10 days as part of the pandemic, which would have prevented him from participating in several of such votes. According to the Scanner Constituent study, Harboe has voted a little more similar to the center-right than Rodrigo Logan, a trend that has been followed by several figures from the Colectivo del Appruebo.
Added to this list are other constituents who, with respect to their assistance, have been half-half. They are Hernán Velásquez (FRVS) with 34 remote assists; Patricia Labra (RN) with 32; Margarita Letelier (UDI) with 32; Tammy Pustilnick (INN) also with 32 remote assists; and Carol Bown (UDI), with 31.
