Chileans resoundingly reject new, progressive constitution
SANTIAGO, Chile — Chileans resoundingly rejected a new constitution that would replace a charter imposed 41 years ago by the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet, dealing a stinging setback to President Gabriel Boric, who had argued that the document would usher in a progressive era.
With 96% of the votes counted in Sunday’s plebiscite, the rejection camp had 61.9% support, compared with 38.1% for approval, amid what appeared to be a heavy turnout, with long lines at polling states. Voting was mandatory.
The approval camp conceded defeat, with its spokesman Vlado Mirosevic saying: “We recognize this result, and we listen with humility to what the Chilean people have expressed.”
The rejection of the document was broadly expected in this country of 19 million, as months of pre-election polling showed that Chileans had grown wary of the document written by a constituent assembly in which a majority of delegates were not affiliated with a political party.
“Today we’re consolidating a great majority of Chileans who saw rejection as a path of hope,” said Carlos Salinas, a spokesman for the Citizens’ House for Rejection. “We want to tell the government of President Gabriel Boric ... that today you must be the president of all Chileans, and together we must move forward.”
Despite the expectations,
no analyst or pollster had predicted such a large margin for the rejection camp, whose victory shows that Chileans were not ready to support a charter that would have been one of the most progressive in the world and would have fundamentally changed the country.
The proposed charter was the first in the world to
be written by a convention split equally between male and female delegates.
Critics said it was too long, lacked clarity and went too far in some measures, which included characterizing Chile as a plurinational state and establishing autonomous Indigenous territories.
“The constitution that was written now leans too far to one side and does not have the vision of all Chileans,” Roberto Briones, 41, said after voting in Santiago, the capital. “We all want a new constitution, but it needs to have a better structure.”
The result deals a major blow to Boric, who at 36 is Chile’s youngest-ever president.
Boric had tied his fortunes so closely to the new document that it was likely some voters saw the plebiscite as a referendum on his government, analysts said, when his approval ratings have been plunging since he took office in March.
What happens now is a big question mark. Chilean society at large, and political leadership of all stripes, has agreed that the constitution that dates from the country’s 1973-90 dictatorship must change. The process that will be chosen to write up a new proposal has to be determined and will probably be the subject of hardfought negotiations among political leaders.
Boric has called on the heads of all parties to attend a meeting Monday to determine the path forward.
The vote marked the climax of a process that began in 2019, when the country, once seen as a paragon of stability in the region, exploded in student-led street protests.
The following year, nearly 80% of Chileans voted in favor of changing the constitution. In 2021, they elected delegates to a constitutional convention.
The 388-article proposed charter sought to place a focus on social issues and gender parity, enshrined rights for the Indigenous population and put the environment and climate change at center stage, in a country that is the world’s top producer of copper. It also introduced rights to free education, healthcare and housing.
The new constitution would have established autonomous Indigenous territories and recognized a parallel justice system in those areas, although lawmakers would decide how far-reaching that would be.
In contrast, the current constitution is a marketfriendly document that favors the private sector over the state in aspects such as education, pensions and healthcare. It makes no reference to the country’s Indigenous people, who make up almost 13% of the population.