Chile a month after deciding its destiny with a new Constitution

Chileans will vote in a month to decide whether to approve a new Constitution that establishes a welfare state or reject it, leaving the current one in force, inherited from the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship, an option that for now leads the preferences.

The final stretch of the electoral campaign is approaching with a proposal on the table: vote for an alternative to the current reduced State that prioritizes private investment, contested by massive street protests, or change it to “a social and democratic state of law”, which guarantees a wide range of fundamental rights.

The Magna Carta project is the result of a year of debates by a Constitutional Convention of 154 members, elected by popular vote. It was the political solution that the country found to appease the protests that broke out in October 2019 demanding greater social equality.

Four weeks before the referendum, the option “rejection” leads the polls, with 45%. But “I approve” shows a rebound and reaches 36%, five points more than the previous survey, according to the latest from the Criteria pollster, known this Wednesday. The undecided reach 19%.

technical tie

More than 15 million Chileans are eligible to vote on September 4, in the first election with compulsory voting since 2012.

“It is to be hoped that in the next few weeks we will be practically at the threshold of a technical tie between both options.”, estimated Rodrigo Espinoza, a political scientist at the Diego Portales University. “There is a lot of uncertainty”, he adds.

The expectation focuses on the result, but also what will come after, in the midst of a broad debate on the reforms that will be introduced whatever the text that is imposed.

Both in the ruling party, which goes for the “I approve”, and in the opposition, square behind the “rejection”, commitments to change, abolish or reform articles are discussed.

There is also no clarity about what will happen in case of winning the rejection. The doubt was raised by President Gabriel Boric himself when he stated that in that case a new constitutional process would have to be started again.

The political agreement that enabled the drafting of a new Constitution establishes that if the rejection is imposed, the current Magna Carta will continue to govern. It was drafted during the dictatorship (1973-1990) but since then it has been reformed dozens of times in democracy, especially its authoritarian enclaves.

Arguments for or against

Since the rejection, the most controversial points of the proposed new Constitution are criticized, such as the “multinationality” or recognition of different indigenous nations and original peoples, introducing community divisions in a country shaped more than two centuries ago from the universalist ideals inherited from the Enlightenment.

It also contemplates the substitution of the Senate for a Chamber of the Regions as greater guarantees of regional representativeness, or the establishment of a Council of Justice, instead of the Judicial Power, with a special indigenous justice.

“That they divide us as different nations, different laws, which are not the same for everyone, seems aberrational to me”, criticizes Isabel Rodríguez, account executive, 42 years old.

Conservative sectors do not agree either with a mention of the right to abortion. “As Christians we are against stipulating the purpose of abortion”, said Hernán Reyes, a 22-year-old student.

On the approval side, they highlight the environmental, feminist character and the consecration of fundamental rights of the new proposal, such as the right to health, education and decent housing, in addition to the privilege of water for human consumption.

“My favorite part is the one that talks about all the rights for people, such as the right to housing, the right to a life free of violence for women, the right to a dignified life in all senses,” says Aymara Vásquez , 28-year-old student.

Andrea González, a 36-year-old nutritionist, comments that the campaign of rejection is the campaign “of fear. And fear is knocked down by reading, reading the new Constitution”.

Disinformation

The official campaign started in the middle of a scenario in which misinformation reigns.

AFP Factual verified and rated as “false” Statements such as that the new text will allow abortions up to nine months, that the Carabineros (police) will not use firearms or that the houses will become property of the State, as expressed since the rejection.

Misinformation pollutesthe dissemination of messages about something that is already complex to understand, such as legal issues, and even more so in a legal document as extensive and important as the proposal for a new Constitution”, of 388 articles, said Alejandro Morales, doctor in Communication from the University of Chile.

Copies of the draft are public access and have become “best sellers” in bookstores while pirated versions abound in the streets, with great interest among Chileans in reading the text.

The government, which must maintain neutrality, printed 900,000 copies to distribute, in the campaign “vote informed” which has earned him accusations of “interventionism”.