Chile: Senate approves reform that enables a new constituent process

The Senate of Chili approved this Wednesday by a large majority the constitutional reform that enables the process to draft a new Constitution and that must now receive the approval of the Chamber of Deputies.

By 40 votes in favor, 4 against, and 2 abstentions, the senators approved the reform to applause and rejected the hundred changes proposed by some parties.

SIGHT: 3 questions to understand how the new Constitution of Chile will be written after the overwhelming rejection in the previous process

“All the actors who signed the commitment honored their word and that is very important because it shows the responsibility and seriousness with which this challenge is being addressed”said the president of the Senate, the socialist Álvaro Elizalde.

The votes against were only from the independents Juan Castro, Karim Bianchi and Carmen Gloria Aravena and the far-right Rojo Edwards, from the Republican Party (PR).

“I hope that this same constructive spirit (…) is also expressed in the processing of the Chamber (of Deputies)”, Elizalde added. If there are no changes in the lower house, the itinerary for a new constituent process will be the same as the one signed after three intense months of negotiations by 14 parties from the conservative Independent Democratic Union (UDI) to the Communist Party.

SIGHT: Chile’s political parties agree to start a new process to draft a draft Constitution

The agreement 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 established to will prepare a preliminary draft that will serve as a basis for the council, which will have 4 months to prepare the text.

The Magna Carta project will have to be finally approved by the citizens in a plebiscite on December 17 for its entry into force.

The agreement also includes 12 institutional principles that the drafting body must follow and that would prevent a refoundation proposal, such as the one that was rejected on September 4 by more than 62.5% of the votes and that was drafted by a convention with a progressive majority. and made up of independent citizens, without party affiliation.

Among those points are the declaration of Chile as a “social and democratic State of rights”, the recognition of indigenous peoples within the “Chilean nation” and the bicameral system.

Despite the rejection in the September 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.