Boric and the former presidents of Chile call not to waste the opportunity for a new Constitution

The president of Chile, Gabriel Boric, shows his ballot before casting the vote in the election of constitutional advisers who will draft a new proposal, in Punta Arenas, Chile.ANDRES POBLETE (AP)

The day to elect the 50 councilors (25 men and 25 women) who will draft the second Chilean constitutional proposal to bury the Magna Carta inherited from the dictatorship has been marked this Sunday by an appeal not to waste the second attempt.

Both President Gabriel Boric and former presidents, of different political colors, have done it.

“This time there is no margin for error,” Boric assured, after voting first thing in the morning in his hometown of Punta Arenas, in the extreme south of the country, alluding to the previous frustrated process.

Last September, 62% of citizens, with a mandatory vote, demolished the text drafted by a convention dominated by the left and independents.

"As a country we have a historic opportunity to reconcile after the fractures we have experienced," added the 37-year-old leftist president, who has been in La Moneda for 15 months.

The rejection of the constitutional proposal last year was a blow to the ruling party and the government itself, which had taken an open position in favor of a text that profoundly changed Chilean institutions.

The Administration changed its attitude 180 degrees in the face of this new attempt and has seen the electoral campaign from a distance.

Even Boric had not accepted questions from the press on the matter in recent weeks.

The core of the president's speech was repeated during the morning in his predecessors.

Former President Sebastián Piñera, from the right, assured that Chile "does not need, nor deserve, nor resist another failure in constitutional matters."

The idea of ​​changing the Constitution was the formula that the political parties found to channel the social discontent that erupted in October 2019, during his second term.

In the run-up to the vote, Francisco Chahuán, president of Renovación Nacional, Piñera's party, assured that the electoral process this Sunday is a plebiscite for the Boric government, a statement strongly criticized from the left for misinforming the public, according to they.

“Let's say things as they are.

Every time Chileans vote, we are evaluating many things.

We are evaluating the lives we are leading.

But in this case, the most important thing is the lives that we are going to have going forward," Piñera said this Sunday.

Former President Ricardo Lagos, a socialist, called to think about the next generation and not about the next political election.

Former President Michelle Bachelet, who at one point was available to be a candidate for this election if the left presented only one list -which did not happen-, encouraged Chileans to vote "not only because it is mandatory, but because it is a tremendous opportunity to have a Constitution that unites us all”.

On whether the result should be interpreted as a plebiscite for the Boric government, the socialist said that the "most serious mistake is to mix this process with political contingency."

Despite the citizen apathy for these elections –the interest in the constituent process of 66% that there was in 2021 dropped to 31% these days, according to the Criteria survey–, the day has been marked by citizen civility, with long lines They have progressed at a good pace.

In part, because it is a process with automatic registration and mandatory voting, as happened in the plebiscite last September when participation reached 85%.

"In some very specific cases, we have a major traffic jam, but they are situations that have been normalizing quickly," described the government spokesperson, Camila Vallejo, from the Palacio de La Moneda.

About three hours after the closing of the polls, Carabineros has reported that the police stations -virtual and face-to-face- have received some 112,000 certificates from citizens to excuse themselves from voting on election day, which is mandatory.

Those who cannot pay this Sunday must present a justification to avoid economic sanctions that can reach up to 226 dollars.

Despite the civic character that has characterized the day, some isolated incidents have occurred, especially in the south of the country.

In the town of Ercilla (in the La Araucanía region), a group attacked the Carabineros sub-station with bullets from a car.

In the Angol prison, in the same region, three officials from the Gendarmerie, the service in charge of guarding Chile's prisons, were taken hostage by a group of prisoners.

The first to begin counting the votes have been the locals in the extreme south of the country, in Magallanes, which are one hour ahead of the rest of the Chilean continental territory.

Although a good turnout is observed, the Servel does not have projections, because around six in the afternoon (Chilean time) voters usually arrive at the polling stations.

This afternoon, in La Moneda, the Government will hold a political committee to follow the results of the elections –which will begin to be known around seven in the evening, Chilean time– and, above all, to coordinate a single response from the ruling party, which compete divided in this election of 50 directors.

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