Jubilee Post News & Views
Special Desk
Chileans have voted in a plebiscite on whether to adopt a new constitution. Votes in majority will either approve or reject what has been described as the world’s most progressive constitution. Results could replace the 1980 document drawn up during Gen Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship.
The referendum marks the culmination of three tumultuous years of protest and political upheaval, in which a protest over subway prices grew into a broad uprising against deeply rooted inequalities and a disconnected political class. Voting was done on Sunday.
The proposed charter is intended to replace a constitution imposed by a military dictatorship 41 years ago.
In a single ballot, Chileans will get to know whether majority among them want legal abortion, universal public health care, gender parity in government, empowered labor unions, greater autonomy for Indigenous groups, rights for animals and nature, and constitutional rights to housing, education, retirement benefits, internet access–all this in the result to come.
It is said to be most important vote in the 204-year history of this South American nation of 19 million — a mandatory, nationwide plebiscite on a written-from-scratch constitution that, if adopted, would be one of the world’s most expansive and transformational national charters.
The outcome will have a resounding impact on President Gabriel Boric, 36, who has been one of the main proponents of the new constitution. Analysts say voters also likely view the vote as a referendum on Chile’s youngest-ever president, whose popularity has plunged since taking office in March.
Voting is mandatory in the plebiscite, which climaxes a three-year process that began when the country once seen as a paragon of stability in the region exploded in student-led street protests in 2019.
