Chilean deputies to be drug tested

Chilean deputies will begin random drug tests in the coming days. A proposal to make this mandatory was approved last month despite criticism from some deputies.

The first seventy-eight Chilean parliamentarians to be tested were randomly drawn last week and will now undergo an initial series of drug tests to raise transparency standards in parliamentary work.

Under the new proposal, all MPs must be tested twice in each four-year legislative term, and any positive results will be made public. MPs who refuse to participate in the tests can be referred to the parliamentary ethics committee.

“There is nothing more important than giving people transparency that their parliamentarians are not drug users,” right-wing deputy Juan Antonio Coloma told the country’s public television station on Thursday, August 18.

This came after the Finnish prime minister said she would submit to a voluntary drug test after being filmed on a night out. The Chilean proposal, however, has divided lawmakers along party lines in a country that is voting on a new constitution to overhaul national policy.

With information from Latina Press

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