The ultra-conservative right will take over the drafting of Chile’s new constitution, which will replace the one inherited from the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, according to the official results of Sunday’s vote.

More than 12 million Chileans went to the polls yesterday to elect 50 members of the Constitutional Council, out of 350 candidates, tasked with drafting the country’s new constitution.

After the votes were counted, the far-right Republican Party, which opposes constitutional reform, won 35% of the vote (22 seats), compared to 28.59% of the left-wing coalition supported by the government of President Gabriel Boric (17 seats). , according to official figures. The traditional right garnered 21% of the vote and 11 seats.

The Republican Party, which espouses anti-immigration and anti-abortion rhetoric, “will not have to negotiate with anyone, will be able to draft the constitution it wants,” while “will have the right to veto any amendment,” Claudia calculated. Hayes, director of the political science department at the University of Chile.

This is the second attempt in Chile to revise the Constitution.

In early September 2022, Chileans rejected the previous draft of the Constitution with a percentage of 61.9%. This included new social rights, mainly in relation to education, health care and housing, recognized rights of indigenous peoples and the right to abortion.

After the citizens rejected this project, Chile’s main political parties decided to start negotiations to restart the constitutional revision process.

The Constitutional Council, whose members were elected on Sunday, will receive a draft prepared by an expert commission, in which it will be able to make changes. The project includes 12 basic principles that cannot be changed, including that Chile adheres to a market economy system.

The draft constitution will then be put to a referendum on 17 December.

It is believed that the current Constitution of Chile, bequeathed by Pinochet, despite repeated amendments, hinders any deep social reforms in the country.

Why did the extreme right win?

A year after leftist President Gabriel Boric came to power, Chile is still plagued by serious crimes that dominate the media on a daily basis.

The deeply conservative and church-influenced Catholic majority in the urban centers believe that any sweeping revision of the Constitution could open a Pandora’s box of further depravity following the October 2019 popular eruption, which also spurred an acceleration in the constitutional review process.

In addition, the Republican Party ran a well-planned campaign with a ton of media coverage, both traditional and social media.

Source: APE-MPE, TVN