Chilean Senate approves procedure for new Constitution

In a comfortable voting session, with 40 representatives in favor and only two nays, Chile’s Senate approved a new constitutional reform procedure yesterday, months after a constitutional draft suffered a landslide exit referendum defeat.

The bill now moves to the House, where approval is also expected, though a few details are still up for discussion. If it clears that hurdle, Chile will create a new constitutional council with 50 representatives elected by popular vote, with the same seat distribution system as that of the country’s Senate.

Chile voted to reform its dictatorship-era constitution after massive social protests in 2019, which also paved the way for President Gabriel Boric’s election in 2021.

In a 2020 referendum, 78 percent of Chileans said yes to forming an assembly to draft a new Constitution. But most of the country was unhappy with the proposed charter, and 62 percent of voters rejected the final proposal last year.

Unlike in the previous Constituent Assembly, Constitutional Council members will be nominated by political parties or political alliances, though they will still require election from a popular vote. The principle of gender parity used in the prior assembly will remain.

An election is penciled in for May 14, and the resulting representatives’ sole goal will be to vote on a new constitutional draft, with approval from 60 percent of members needed for any norm to be included in the text. 

President Boric, a former left-wing student leader, believes a more moderate approach will be needed to recapture the support of centrist voters.

Proposals such as declaring Chile a “plurinational state,” with semi-autonomous indigenous courts, no option to declare a state of emergency in cases of social unrest, a restricted private health care system, strong political oversight of judges, and even the virtual legalization of abortion, are less likely to be included this time around.

But the essence of changing Chile’s charter from a market-oriented one to that of a welfare state will remain, so reforms could still be very significant.

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