Chile: Senate discusses project that enables a new constituent process

The Senate of Chili The discussion of the project that enables the new constituent process in the country begins this Monday afternoon, a key reform that must be validated in both houses of Congress.

As pointed out to local media by the former Christian Democratic Senate and president of the Constitution Commission, Matías Walker, today a member of “Democratas”, it is expected “not to introduce major modifications to the text”, as long as it is “the result of an agreement (…) and the idea is that if there are modifications that arise from the debate, if it is necessary to make clarifications, they arise by mutual agreement”.

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For its approval in the Senate, the document must have the approval of 4/7 of the chamber, that is, 29 votes in favor out of a total of 50 senators.

The political agreement to give continuity to the constituent process entered as a reform project on Wednesday, December 21 after more than three months of negotiations between the forces with parliamentary representation, an agreement that unraveled complex knots such as the composition of the drafting body, the participation of experts and its minimum requirements.

It was established, in turn, that the participants in the drafting process (50 members of the elected Constitutional Council, 24 experts and the 14 jurists who will be part of the Admissibility Technical Commission who will act as a kind of arbitrator) are remunerated.

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The directors will receive 60 monthly tax units (UTM) -account unit used in the country for paying taxes and fines updated according to inflation- (almost 4,200 dollars), the experts will charge 30 UTM (almost 2,100 dollars), while the lawyers will be paid 10 UTM (almost $2,750) per session, with a maximum of three sessions per month.

Secondly, It was resolved that a number of seats for indigenous peoples proportional to the total vote obtained at the national level will be reserved. and that the minimum margin to be elected will be 1.5% of the votes.

Regarding the pending calendar dates, it was agreed that The elections for constitutional councilors will be on May 14, 2023.

The agreement for a new constituent process was closed on December 13 and was signed by 14 political forces from the conservative Independent Democratic Union (UDI) to the Communist Party.

It establishes that the new body that will draft the Fundamental Law proposal will be called the Constitutional Council and will be made up of 50 people elected by the citizens. At the same time, a committee of experts appointed by Congress (12 by the Senate and 12 by the Chamber of Deputies) will be installed to prepare a preliminary draft that will serve as a basis for the council.

The pact also includes 12 institutional principles that the drafting body must follow and that would prevent a refounding proposal.

On September 4, 62.5% of Chileans rejected the constitutional proposal drafted by a convention with a progressive majority and made up of independent citizenss, without affiliation to political parties.

A few days later, the political forces began negotiations to start a new process because, despite the rejection in the plebiscite, there is a consensus on the need to replace the current Constitution, established during the dictatorship.

Source: Elcomercio

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I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.