Chilean voters rejected the text of the new constitution, written by the right, just over a year after rejecting an initial, more progressive constitutional amendment proposal.
When 55% of the referendum votes had been counted, ‘no’ won with 55.2% and ‘yes’ with 44.8%.
Once again, Chile is unable to give up the Constitution it inherited from the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.
The new text was considered even more conservative because it was prepared by a body dominated by the ultra-conservative Republican Party.
The Independent Democratic Union, which supported the new text, has already conceded defeat, with its leader, Javier Macaya, saying Chileans “don’t want constitutional change.”
The text eased the burden on the state, limited certain rights such as therapeutic abortion, and tightened the treatment of migrants through the expulsion “in the shortest possible time” of those found in an irregular situation.
The left-wing government of President Gabriel Boric maintained a neutral stance towards this process, the second in the past two years that aims to reform the dictatorship’s Magna Carta (1973-1990).
Source: DN
