Striking teachers protest agains the government of Chilean President Sebastian Pinera in Santiago, Chile, 2019. Teachers are demanding better working conditions. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)
Cape Town: Chilean residents have rejected the country’s new constitution after 98.43% of votes were processed by Chile’s Electoral Service on Sunday.
According to Sputnik News, the Electoral Service said 61.90% of citizens voted against the new draft text which was set to replace the one drawn up under General Augusto Pinochet’s military rule.
“I promise to do everything on my part to build, together with the National Congress and civil society, a new constituent itinerary that will deliver a text that, gathering from the lessons learnt from this process, manages to represent a broad majority of citizens,” Chilean President Gabriel Boric said on Sunday.
Boric added that he, together with the parliamentary leaders and political parties, draw up the guidelines on Monday to allow the process of drafting a new constitution to continue.
“The Chilean people said loudly that they were not satisfied with the proposal that the Convention presented to Chile, and that requires the authorities, the political actors, that we work with more commitment and more dialogue, and move forward in creating a text that represents us all,” said the president.
The BBC reported that close to 80% of Chileans had initially voted in favour of replacing the old constitution in October 2020. However, the new document proved too radical a change for most.
The move came about following nationwide violent protests in 2019 due to subway fare hikes and residence calling for free education and health care as well as lower tariffs.
Furthermore, the current constitution was approved back in 1980, during the rule of Augusto Pinochet.
IOL