Chile elects a 40% independent panel to formulate new constitution

Photo: AFP

Chilean People favor independent candidates who are not aligned with any political party to a 155-member commission to rewrite the old constitution widely criticized for lack of social justice.

The current constitution had been formulated during the Pinochet era. Pinochet was the US back right-wing Fascist Military dictator whom most of the Chileans have been desperate to get rid of.

With nearly 90 percent of the vote counted, candidates aligned to leftist parties received a third of ballots, while the right – in power in Chile – garnered just over 20 percent.

Most of the independents "are outsiders, without membership of a party and critical of the traditional parties," said Marcelo Mella, a political scientist at the University of Santiago.

"The political system is being reconfigured," added Mireya Davila of the University of Chile's Institute of Public Affairs.

"The electoral force of the independents is much greater than previously thought and this confirms that the citizenry is fed up with the traditional parties"

About 60% of the Chileans blame the old constitution for creating a system that benefits the elite. The anti-capitalist wave is not new as Salvador Allende, a Marxist who had been overthrown by the American regime to be replaced by Pinochet.

People demand social reform and social welfare alongside state control over the country's natural resources.

The 155-member drafting group, which will have nine months to come up with a new constitution for the Latin American nation, will also be composed of 50 percent of women, and 17 seats are reserved for representatives of indigenous communities.

 

 

Publish : 2021-05-17 13:55:00

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