Chileans vote 155-member assembly to draft new constitution | Latin American news

Chileans will vote on Sunday, the second day of the election, to elect 155 representatives to the Constituent Assembly to rewrite the country’s dictatorship-era constitution in a bid to address the deep social inequality that sparked deadly protests in 2019.

About 14 million people will be able to vote this weekend, many in the most important elections since Chile’s return to democracy 31 years ago.

According to the National Electoral Service, more than three million people, or approximately 20.4% of voters, voted on Saturday.

“I hope it will be a constitution that will capture the soul of our nation,” President Sebastian Pinera said after a vote in the capital, Santiago.

Silvia Navarrete, a 35-year-old economist, was at a polling station in Santiago with her little daughter in her arms.

He said he voted for a “system that works for everyone that will allow all voices to be heard” and that “rights and duties are truly fair to all human beings.”

Forty-year-old university professor Carlos Huertas has said his vote has gone to candidates who have been active in “this social revolution” – citing the 2019 protests.

Chile’s constitution dates back to 1980, when it was established during the 1973-1990 tenure of dictator Augusto Pinochet, and is accused of blocking fair progress in a country ranked as one of the most unbalanced among the advanced economies.

This disparity was one of the main causes of the protests in October 2019, and as a result, a month later — after 36 deaths — the government agreed to a referendum on a new constitution.

This plebiscite was originally scheduled for April 2020 but was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic, which finally happened on October 25 last year.

The result was unquestionable: 80 percent voted for a body made up of members elected in favor of a new constitution.

Gender parity

There are more than 1,300 candidates this weekend to be part of history.

Analysts say the election will be a battle between left-wing and right-wing party candidates, with independents not expected to get any significant support.

The parties on the left are generally seeking greater state control over mineral and other natural resources – mostly privatized since the dictatorship – and more public spending on education, health, pensions and social welfare.

The right, in a gesture of the need to promote social assistance, largely defends the free market capitalist system in which Chile has experienced economic growth.

Globally, half of the candidates are female.

This will also be the case for the 155-member group of writers, who will have a nine-month period with the new founding law for Chile, which will be approved or rejected by a compulsory national vote next year.

Seventeen seats are reserved for indigenous representatives in the “agreement” to draft the constitution.

Voters will also elect regional governors, mayors and local councilors this weekend – usually in the run-up to the presidential election tests in November.

Rich, but different

The campaign has been complicated by an outbreak of COVID-19, which has left more than 1.2 million cases and nearly 30,000 dead in the country among 19 million people, as the two-day election format has been decided due to the pandemic.

Chile has one of the highest vaccination rates in South America, with more than 48.5% of the target population of 15.2 million receiving two doses so far.

The country has the highest per capita income and the third largest in Latin America. But workers, as well as the middle-middle class, owe a great deal, often to pay for schooling and private pensions.

An OECD report in February said that the key challenge in Chile was “consistently high inequality”, as 53% of households considered themselves economically vulnerable and the poorest 20% of households earned only 5.1% of their total income.

The level of satisfaction with the quality of life is low.