Chile has started this Sunday the counting of votes on a proposal for a new Constitution. More than 15.4 million citizens were called to vote from 08:00 to 18:00 local time (21:00 GMT) to approve or reject a text prepared by a body elected at the polls, which did not achieve consensus and where the right and far right They had a majority.

This second try for having a Magna Carta that replaces the one established in 1980 by the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship (1973-1990) started in September 2022, when a resounding majority rejected in another plebiscite a project written by a majority leftist convention that proposed a profound change in the country model.

The latest surveys published more than two weeks ago anticipated that citizens I would vote again against the text, But experts assure that the undecided could play a determining role.

While the right defends that the proposal faces the problem of insecurity and puts an end to the institutional uncertainty generated by the massive protests of 2019, the left believes that the text is “dogmatic” and delves into the neoliberal model implemented during the military regime.

He far-right Republican Partywhich paradoxically has always been against constitutional change but achieved the greatest number of seats in the drafting body of the new proposal, has a lot at stake in this election and, according to analysts, a possible victory could give it hegemony within the conservative spectrum.

Voting day passed normally and, although suffrage is mandatory, it is believed that participation will be lower than the 85% registered in last year’s plebiscite. According to official data, more than 242,000 people presented their excuses not to go to vote and avoid being fined, double the number last year.

If the text is finally rejected, it will continue the current Constitution is in force and the constitutional debate initiated after the social outbreak of 2019, the largest wave of protests since the return to democracy, in 1990, will be closed – at least during the presidential term of Gabriel Boric, which ends in March 2026.

“Regardless of the result, we will continue working for people’s priorities“President Boric said today. The president, who has not been involved in this election, unlike what he did in last year’s plebiscite, voted in his native Punta Arenas, in the extreme south, and returned hours later to Santiago to continue the scrutiny.