Chileans vote down new constitution in referendum; Boric shifts focus
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The Sunday referendum saw over half of Chileans voting against a new draft of the constitution to replace the one placed by US-backed Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship regime in 1980.
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Chilean President Gabriel Boric casting his vote during the referendum on the proposal for Chile's new constitution, in Punta Arenas, Chile, on December 17, 2023 (AFP)
The Chilean Electoral Service has reported that more than half of Chilean citizens did not lend their support to the proposed draft of the country's new constitution following Sunday's referendum.
After counting 99.33 percent of the ballots, the most recent data available on the Electoral Service's website indicates that 55.76 percent of Chileans, totaling 6.86 million individuals, opposed the revised constitution, while approximately 5.4 million people voted in favor of the draft text.
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In December 2021, Chilean leftist Gabriel Boric, 35, a member of the left-wing ‘I approve Dignity’ coalition, won Chile's presidential runoff election, becoming the country’s youngest-ever President.
Immediately upon taking office, Boric announced that his administration would arrange a referendum on a new Chilean constitution. This constitution had been redrafted by an elected constituent assembly to replace the Magna Carta that had been established in 1980, during the US-backed Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship regime.
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After the Sunday referendum, Boric subsequently announced that his government would not resume the constitutional process and would instead prioritize other pressing reforms. This marked the second unsuccessful attempt to adopt a new constitution, as in 2022, 61.9 percent of Chileans also voted against the proposed draft.
Chile witnessed in 2019 massive protests demanding better social and economic equality - protests which Boric himself supported. The demonstrations ended after the opposition and the former government reached an agreement to develop a new constitution.
