Chilean parliament approves reform that will enable new constitution

The Chilean Chamber of Representatives approved this Wednesday by a large majority and in the final stage the constitutional reform that allows the process of writing a new Constitution throughout this year.

By 109 votes in favor, 37 against and two abstentions, the parliamentarians approved the reform, which establishes that the new body that will elaborate the Basic Law proposal will be composed of 50 people elected by the citizens and will have the support of a commission of specialists designated by Congress.

As the reform was approved without changes during the parliamentary procedure, the script for a new constituent process will be the same signed in December last year, after three months of intense negotiations between 14 parties, from the conservative Independent Democratic Union (UDI) to the Communist Party.

The negative votes came mainly from lawmakers from the right-wing Republican Party and the liberal Popular Party, who did not participate in last year’s negotiations.

“There is no need to be surprised or to dramatize the fact that there is a group of parliamentarians who do not agree with the constitutional reform project, because in democracy that is what happens: majorities prevail, but minorities are respected”, said the Minister of the General Secretariat of the Presidency, Ana Lya Uriarte.

PLEBISCITE ON DECEMBER 17

The members of the so-called Constitutional Council will be elected at the polls on May 7 and will have up to five months to prepare the proposed text.

Earlier, in March, a commission of 24 specialists will be set up (12 appointed by the Senate and 12 by the Chamber), who will draw up a draft that will serve as a basis for the council.

The Magna Carta project will have to be finally approved by the citizens in a plebiscite on the 17th of December for it to come into effect.

The agreement also includes 12 institutional principles that the drafting body must follow and that would prevent a refoundation proposal, such as the one that was rejected on September 4 by more than 62.5% of the votes and which was drawn up by a convention with a progressive majority made up of independent citizens, with no party affiliation.

Among these points are the declaration of Chile as a “social and democratic state of rights”, the recognition of indigenous peoples within the “Chilean nation” and the bicameral system.

Despite the rejection in the September plebiscite, there is consensus on the need to replace the current Constitution, instituted during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990).

With information from Gazeta do Povo

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