For the second time in two years, Chileans are refusing to adopt a new constitution. The 'No' vote in Sunday's referendum won with more than 55% of the vote. Chile therefore maintains in force the Constitution drawn up during the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. After the failed referendum in September 2022 - when the population rejected the proposal drawn up by the Constitutional Convention with a progressive majority with 61.9% of the votes - Chileans also decreed the failure of the draft Charter drafted by the Constitutional Council, with a right-wing majority.
The vote closes a turbulent period of recent Chilean history that has lasted 1,500 days and - as already announced by all the political forces of the country - there will be no new constituent process.
The 'Yes' committee immediately acknowledged defeat. When the ballot had not yet reached a third of the sections, the senator of the Independent Democratic Union (UDI), Javier Macaya, said in a brief statement that "Chileans are tired of the debate on the constitutional process. Speech closed. Everyone wants to get through this phase and devote themselves to the needs of the population. Let's go to sleep peacefully."
The "No" committee, on the other hand, waited for the final results to express its opinion. In a statement to the press, the president of the Socialist Party Paulina Vodanovic said that "the people have clearly expressed their position." "There will be no new constitutional process, starting tomorrow we will work to tune the agenda of real Chile to political activity, offering answers to the main needs: security, health, work and pensions," he concluded.
Mea culpa by Boric and the right-wing opposition
The Chilean constitutional process "has failed to channel the hope of having a Constitution for all" and politics is indebted to the Chilean people.
This was stated by President Gabriel Boric while analyzing the result of the referendum that rejected on Sunday the proposal for
a Constitution drafted by a Council dominated by the right, after the text proposed by
an assembly with a progressive majority was also rejected in 2022.
Boric reiterated that the result leaves neither winners nor losers. "We cannot repeat the same mistake of previous referendums. The country is among all Chileans, and those who triumph cannot ignore those who are circumstantially defeated," the president added.
The leader of the Republican Party that held a majority in the Constitutional Council, the ultraconservative José Antonio Kast, also conceded defeat. "We failed to convince the population that this was a better constitution than the current one," said Kast, who said that the population had shown that they were "tired" of these processes. "A sad stage in our history that began with a wave of crimes has come to an end," the Republican Party leader added, referring to the 2019 social protests.
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