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Chileans voted overwhelmingly against a proposed new constitution on Sunday, rejecting what was supposed to be one of the most progressive in the world.
While nearly 80 percent of Chileans voted to draft a new constitution in 2020, nearly 62 percent of voters rejected the new text, with a tally of 99.74 percent.
Karol Cariola, a spokeswoman for the ratification campaign, conceded defeat in downtown San Diego on Sunday night, but said the mandate to draft the new text remains in place.
“We are committed to creating the conditions that guide the will of the people and guide us on the path to a new constitution,” Cariola said.
The government of President Gabriel Boric, whose government is largely tied to the new text, said a cabinet change was imminent and the government would work to draft another constitution.
“We have to listen to the voice of the people. Not just today, but also the last years we’ve been through,” Borick said. “That anger is lurking and we can’t ignore it.”
The president said he would work with Congress and the community to draft another text, learning from Sunday’s rejection.
The centre-left and right-wing parties pushing for the rejection movement also agreed to negotiate the preparation of a new text.
“I think there are two things that explain what just happened. One is the rejection of the Borik government,” political analyst Cristobal Bellorio told Reuters, adding that the other was about indigenous and other The problem of identity politics.
The proposed text rejected by voters is a response to the widespread violent protests that swept the country in late 2019, focusing on social rights, the environment, gender equality and indigenous rights, and dating back to Augusto Pinochet. Pinochet’s market-friendly constitution took a huge turn for the dictatorship.
Mass voting in mandatory voting
Nearly 13 million of the 15 million Chileans and residents eligible to vote cast their ballots in more than 3,000 polling centres. That included the National Stadium in San Diego, where Rosemary Williamson, 54, and her mother, 85, voted against the new constitution.
Williamson, who voted yes in 2020, cited concerns about several proposals.
“It’s mostly (indigenous) multi-ethnicity and then pension funds,” she said. “I’ve worked my whole life and I’m not willing to share.”
Diego Uribe, 35, a father of two who usually doesn’t vote because he has lost faith in political parties, voted in Puente Alto, a low-income area south of Santiago.
“This one is different,” Uribe said, noting that he would vote even if it wasn’t mandatory. “Approval is a real change for the future, free education, dignified healthcare and more rights.”
The latest poll, before the two-week blackout, showed 47 percent of opponents ahead, compared with 38 percent who agreed and 17 percent undecided, but Sunday’s results outpaced the poll by a wide margin.
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