Yesterday’s elections in Chile elected the constituents who will draft a new proposal for a new Magna Carta, in a second process after the one held in 2021. The Republican Party, led by José Antonio Kast, obtained the majority of the constitutional councilors, which completely changed the balance of forces compared to the previous Convention, where the left and the extreme left predominated. Only 18 months ago, Kast had been surpassed by Gabriel Boric in the ballotage that led him to the presidency.
The Republican Party won 22 seats out of 50 in the next Constitutional Convention, which gave it veto power. Together with the 11 members elected by the Chile Seguro pact, composed of the Renovación Nacional, UDI and Evopoli parties, they reached the 3/5 quorum necessary to approve the rules of the text.
On the other hand, the pact formed by the Socialist Party, the Broad Front and the Communist Party managed to elect 17 councilors, but did not reach the 2/5 quorum that would have allowed them to have veto power.
Following his party’s victory, Kast has stated that the current government has been «incapable of facing the insecurity and migratory crisis».
Implications of the news: with this configuration of forces, the new Magna Carta will surely not include several of Gabriel Boric’s proposals, such as the right to abortion, and will bet on health and pension systems that also favor the presence of private entities. In short, it is expected that the final result of the process will be a new Constitution quite similar to the current one, but with greater legitimacy among the population.
Next steps: the new Convention will assume its functions on June 7. After five months of work, it will deliver its proposal to the country on November 17. This proposal will be plebiscized in a mandatory universal vote on December 17.
