It is a historic election. On Saturday 15 and Sunday 16 May, the Chileans must designate the 155 members of the Assembly which will be responsible for drafting a new Constitution. This is one of the main achievements of the social movement started at the end of 2019 in Chile: the country decided, during a referendum in October 2020, to draw a line on the Constitution drafted during the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet (1973- 1990). It had become, over the protests generated by the simple increase in the price of the metro ticket, the main demand of the demonstrators, who considered the current text to guarantee the neoliberal system which perpetuates social inequalities in the country.
“A part of the population sees in the adoption of a new Constitution the possibility of changing the rules of the game: to obtain better living conditions and to have more equal access to rights such as retirement, health. , education “, says Claudio Fuentes, professor of political science at Diego Portales University. Sectors now largely privatized, because the current Constitution confirms the principle that the subsidiary State intervenes only in a very limited way. ” Dat the same time, he adds, the population is also skeptical of this political process and doubts that it will allow these aspirations to materialize. “
Fifteen million voters are called to participate in this election, which will be held the same weekend as the municipal elections and, for the first time, the elections of regional governors. Originally scheduled for early April, these polls were postponed due to the difficult health context in Chile.
Discredited political class
More than 1,300 people are running for a constituent seat. Discredited because of the management of the social crisis and the pandemic by President Sebastián Piñera, the right is presented under a unified front, with the Vamos por Chile coalition. “This gives it much more chance of placing candidates within the Convention than the left, which is very divided”, says political scientist Claudio Fuentes.
Facing the traditional parties, a multitude of “independents” also apply for this election. Academics, union representatives or television personalities … These candidates who do not come from the political class – who represent 61% of the total candidatures, according to the Observatory of the new Constitution, a study center in which 16 Chilean universities collaborate – have for many emerged in the wake of the social movement of late 2019, and testify to the inability of traditional parties to seize the demands of the demonstrators. However, some independents have received the support of political groups.
You have 55.51% of this article to read. The rest is for subscribers only.
