Chileans voted out on Sunday the proposed new constitution that would have drastically shifted the country to the “left”, which was peppered with proposals to enshrine over 100 rights into the national charter, more than any other constitution in the world.
Garnering 62%, the nays ultimately voted out in a national referendum the proposed charter, a product of years of extensive deliberations and bloody protests.
In a 2020 vote, nearly four out of five Chileans signified the intent to write a new constitution. The nation went on to elect a 154-member constitutional convention to hammer out the next framework of the country. However, the vote on Sunday connoted that the text might have gone too far.
Should it have been enacted, the 388-article proposal would have legalized abortion, mandated universal health care, required gender parity in government, empowered labor unions, committed to fight climate change, protected citizens’ freedom to choose their own identity “in all its dimensions and manifestations,” and granted rights to nature and animals.
The charter boasts a care “from birth to death,” including enshrining right to housing, education, clean air, water, food, sanitation, internet access, retirement benefits, and free legal advice.
The text would have also abolished the Senate, strengthened regional governments, and allowed Chilean presidents to run for a second consecutive term.
It would also have given indigenous groups greater autonomy, which has been translated by the campaign to reject the new constitution as a push to make Chile a “plurinational” state. The 11 groups, accounting for 13% of the population, would have been treated as their own self-governing nations within the country.
The new charter would have also strengthened regulations on mining, a key campaign promise of the current socialist president, Gabriel Boric. The 35-year old leader, a former student protest leader, has long been calling include nationalizing copper and lithium production in the state’s constitution draft.
Economists have approximated the proposed constitution would cost the country around 9% – 14% of Chile’s US$317 billion GDP.
One of the main issues with the new text is the left-leaning composition of the convention, taking two-thirds of the seats. Former president Ricardo Lagos described the proposal as “extremely partisan.”
With both aisles still calling for a revamp of the current charter, the country is now left in a constitutional limbo and still runs on the legal framework devised during the leadership of dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet.
Boric still calls for the voters to elect a new set of members for the constitutional convention and do the whole process all over again, as he hopes to enact his socialist policies during his tenure.
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