Chileans vote to reject new progressive constitution

Chileans have voted overwhelmingly against a new constitution that would have been one of the most progressive in the world.

With almost all votes counted, reports suggest that nearly 62% rejected the draft constitution. The margin of defeat is much larger than opinion polls had suggested and is “a slap in the face” for 36-year-old President Gabriel Boric, who had backed the new document, said the BBC.

Following mass protests three years ago that rocked a country long seen as a bastion of stability in South America, some 80% of Chileans voted in 2020 to replace the existing constitution drawn up by former military dictator Augusto Pinochet in 1980.

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The new document “included a long list of social rights and guarantees that had appeared to respond to the demands of that vast social movement”, reported The Guardian.

The constitution would have enshrined gender parity across government and other organs of the state, requiring by law “for the first time anywhere in the world” that women hold at least 50% of positions in official institutions. It would have also declared Chile a “plurinational” state, recognising the rights of Chile’s indigenous populations, which make up about 13% of the population.

Dwindling support for the new constitution “could at least partly be blamed on the prominence given to Chile’s Indigenous population”, said DW, as well as fears it would “legalize abortion in a country where half of the population is Roman Catholic”. Critics said the proposed charter “was too long, lacked clarity and went too far in some of its measures”, said Al Jazeera.

The BBC added that mandatory voting may have meant that “voters who had even slight doubts about the text chose to reject it in the hope that a new version would prove more to their liking”.

“What happens now amounts to a big question mark,” said France 24. Chile’s political leaders “of all stripes” agree that the constitution, which dates from the country’s 1973-1990 dictatorship, needs to be updated, but exactly when and how this process will take place remains to be seen. Until then, said The Guardian, “Chile’s future looks decidedly uncertain”.