Right dominates constitutional reform elections in Chile

The Constitutional Council in Chile will have a very different makeup from its predecessor, the Constituent Assembly, after right-wing parties won more than 60 percent of seats in yesterday’s elections.

José Antonio Kast’s far-right Republican Party was the standout, winning more than 35 percent of the vote and 22 out of 50 seats. Mr. Kast came in second in the 2021 presidential election, but had never defeated the center-right in a congressional election. 

The win arguably positions Mr. Kast as the leader of the opposition, as Chile continues to shift right since the victory of left-winger Gabriel Boric in the last presidential race.

Mr. Boric’s coalition came in second on Sunday with 28.6 percent of the valid votes and 17 seats in the assembly, while the center-right will have 11 representatives thanks to 21.1 percent of voters. Centrist and populist parties failed to win enough votes to get a seat in any of Chile’s districts.

One salient point of the night was the high number of blank and null ballots, which made up more than 20 percent of the total, in line with the lower voter enthusiasm registered by pollsters. Voter turnout was high at nearly 85 percent, but voting was compulsory, unlike in most recent elections in Chile.

The right wing will now control the drafting of the new constitution, as three-fifths of the council’s seats are needed to approve changes to the text.

This is a significant shift from the beginning of the process, when the left dominated the Constituent Assembly after mass protests against inequality forced the right to accept constitutional reform.But Chileans rejected the assembly’s final proposal by a resounding 62-38 margin in a 2022 exit referendum, while right-wing dominated issues such as migration and crime are now at the top of the national agenda.

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