Assuring that “the main problem of the Constitutional Convention (CC) was to bring lists of independents”, the President of the Socialist Party (PS), Paulina Vodanovic, outlined a criticism of the composition of the drafting body of the new fundamental letter in the face of the plebiscite of September 4, and this after the ruling party lined up around an agreement to promote a series of reforms to the text in case it wins the Approval.
It is worth mentioning that the PS played a key role in the negotiations for the independent lists to be admitted to the CC. This, for the socialist leader, was a gross error. in conversation with The Mercury, Vodanovic explained that “the independents have always been on party lists and, therefore, they respond to a certain social sentiment.” But, in his opinion, “here there were lists that people voted for only by name, but with people like Rojas Vade, who didn’t even have the moral integrity to be in a body as important as the Convention.”
“It was a big mistake, I’m totally against it,” said the PS helmsman, reiterating that “a big mistake, and perhaps the main problem with the result of the Convention, was keeping lists of independents.”
Originally, the Constitutional Convention was made up of five mass lists (I Approve Dignity, the Approval List, the People’s List, Let’s Go for Chile and Non-Neutral Independents), plus 12 local lists, 10 representatives of indigenous peoples and an elected candidate, completely independent. However, as time passed, several conventional ones left their lists or groups, in order to join others or to work as independents.
There is also the case of Rodrigo Rojas Vade, elected by the People’s List and who stopped attending the sessions and work of the Convention after discovering a series of lies about his illness.
Vodanovic was one of the promoters of the ruling party’s agreement to make changes to the constitutional proposal in case the Approval wins on September 4. Three weeks before the Exit Plebiscite of the proposal for a new Constitution, the President of the PS stated that “beyond the impact it may have on the vote, it is important to highlight the ability of 11 political parties to come to fruition. That’s already a win.”
Along the same lines, Paulina Vodanovic specified that they also seek to legitimize the role of political parties, since “they not only have electoral purposes, but their essence is to exercise politics, through ideas and proposals. I do not understand what is the fixation of limit ourselves in this regard.”
“When I became president of the PS, the constitutional proposal was not finished and in politics one must see what the social reactions are. This is not because of surveys, it is because of the perception of the citizens that we see daily on the street. We We realized that there were issues that generated legitimate doubts, such as indigenous justice, which was not clarified and, therefore, we set a commitment so that limits are established in the new Constitution,” the socialist leader finally reflected.
