The vote is going down for the second time, after the earlier progressive structure textual content draft was rejected.
Chileans are headed to the polls on Sunday for a second referendum geared toward changing the nation’s dictatorship-era constitution, with voters requested to approve or reject a extra conservative draft.
The most recent model was overseen by the far-right opposition Republican Get together after voters roundly rejected a progressive draft in September 2022 that tried to enshrine environmental protections and the correct to elective abortion.
Voting began at 8am (11:00 GMT) and was attributable to shut at 6pm (21:00 GMT), with outcomes due a couple of hours later.
The history of the current constitution stretches again to 1980 when Augusto Pinochet – a ruler who oversaw the mass abduction and execution of his left-wing critics – appointed a authorities fee to draft a authorized framework to formalise his authority.
Leftist President Gabriel Boric mentioned final month that it will be his final try and reform the structure so as to give attention to stability and long-term growth.
Why is the vote going down?
In 2019, issues over social welfare simmered into widespread anti-government protests. Tens of millions of Chileans flooded the streets, voicing a spectrum of calls for, together with requires higher public healthcare, fairer entry to training, abortion rights and pension reform.
Many protesters singled out Pinochet’s constitution as the foundation reason for the discontent. That prompted Chile’s authorities to carry a referendum in 2020 to resolve whether or not to ditch the previous constitution and write a brand new one.
Final September, the primary meeting elected to draft a brand new textual content was dominated by left-wing forces however their draft, which targeted on social, Indigenous, environmental and gender rights, was overwhelmingly rejected by voters.
The citizens then swung proper for the second draft and voters elected an meeting dominated by conservative events.
That textual content is now up for a vote on Sunday and is taken into account to be extra conservative and market-friendly than the 1980 structure it might exchange.
The proposed model locations personal property rights and strict guidelines round immigration and abortion at its centre.
What do polls predict?
For months, polls have proven that voters are prone to reject this proposal too, however the hole tightened within the lead-up to the referendum.
Pollster Cadem’s final survey on December 1, earlier than a 15-day ballot blackout, confirmed 47 p.c deliberate to vote in opposition to the textual content versus 38 p.c who deliberate to approve it.
Forward of the vote, Nanco Antilef, a member of the Democratic Revolution occasion, additionally discovered himself in a paradoxical place: hoping to maintain the previous model in place.
“It’s not that we’re defending Pinochet’s structure. It’s simply that this proposal is worse,” he told Al Jazeera in a latest interview.
The consequence, critics say, is a draft that favours right-wing priorities on the expense of traditionally marginalised teams, together with Chile’s Indigenous peoples.
“It’s tied to a enterprise mannequin and favours particular person pursuits slightly than collective ones,” mentioned Antilef, himself of Indigenous Mapuche descent.
Now, he and different Indigenous Chileans are pushing for voters to reject the draft structure, even when which means the nation will probably be caught with the Pinochet-era model for the foreseeable future.