More than 60% of voters are against Magna Carta, but Boric, who faces a serious setback, plans to continue the constitutional process
Strong setback for President Gabriel Boric. Chile yesterday rejected the proposed new constitution by an overwhelming 62.2% of the vote and decided to maintain the current text, inherited from the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, according to 72.2% of the vote. The option to accept the new Magna Carta, which included a new set of social rights, was supported by only 37.8% of voters.
The vital referendum held in the South American country yesterday was marked by the presence, especially in the early hours, of long queues at polling stations that are open across the country and at police stations. More than fifteen million Chileans were obliged to give their opinion from eight in the morning until six in the afternoon – six hours less than in Spain. Only those who were more than 200 miles from their habitual residence that day were excused.
Anyone who did not exercise his or her obligation to vote risked a fine. For this reason, many citizens demanded that the officers provide them with certificates justifying their inability to vote due to health problems, being away from home, or serious impediments. There they became part of a list that will eventually end up in the hands of the courts, for which the appropriate evidence is required.
The politicians were the earliest to get up to express their views. The president, Gabriel Boric, assured his electoral college today that he plans to call for broad national unity across all sectors to continue the constituent process regardless of the poll results. “It will go ahead because both those who reject the proposal and those who support it have pledged to reform the text or start a new debate,” he said.
When voting in his hometown of southern Punta Arenas, he added that he could “guarantee the will and action of civil society, civil society and political parties to listen to all voices to move forward.” “Either to implement the text of the new constitution, for which we have already called on several constitutionalists and various civil society personalities, or to give continuity to the constituent process in case the other option wins,” he said.
The president held a series of meetings with pro-government leaders preparing the stage starting today when, according to reports, Boric will convene an advisory council responsible for preparing a new constitutional convention when the ‘no’ vote is imposed in the plebiscite. Official leaders kept hoping until the last minute that Chileans would support the text. The high turnout of young people in the polls made them optimistic, but the overwhelming result leaves no room for doubt.
For months, the polls gave the opportunity to be rejected as the winner, and with it the continuity of the constitution instituted in 1980 under the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990).
When he went to the polls, former President Sebastián Piñera, while never making the sentiment of his vote public, pointed out that there was “a commitment to a new and good constitution”. “I am convinced that Chilean citizens will wisely choose the best path for the country, because let’s say things as they are, we have had too much time of division, confrontation, violence, uncertainty, and what Chile needs is more peace. , more unity, because only in this way will we be able to build everyone’s home,” he said.
Former president and current director of the United Nations Office of Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, voted from Geneva, where she invited a “dialogue” once the results were known. “Let’s sit down and talk. Chile deserves to have peace to move forward.
Yesterday’s historic vote also called for 514,000 foreigners to vote, 125,000 more than those registered in 2019, the date that triggered the “social outbreak” that ushered in the process concluded in yesterday’s polls.
By country, Peruvians, Colombians and Bolivians are the ones with the largest presence, although it is the Haitian and Venezuelan citizens who have made a significant jump with an increase of 412.8% and 384% respectively from 2020. The number of Colombians came in third. at 67%, followed by Portuguese at 41%, Filipinos at 37.7% and Hondurans at 34%.
Migration, especially the illegal ones that enter through the borders of Bolivia and Peru, and whose protagonists are Venezuelan and Haitian citizens, has been one of the most controversial and burning issues in recent months in a country that he was not used to large migration flows.
Polling stations were also set up in all consulates abroad. The first to lock were those installed in southern areas, such as New Zealand, where the victory of the ‘yes’ was already known in the afternoon, a trend similar to that of Europe, where the positive vote was also imposed.
As a novelty, citizens in penitentiary centers who have been deprived of their liberty for various crimes have also voted for the first time.
Source: La Verdad
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