Constituent candidate elections in Chile 2023, live | | The extreme right prevails in the count with more than 99% counted

Chile took a new step on Sunday to try to leave behind the Constitution of the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. More than 15 million voters were compulsorily called to the polls to elect the 50 members of the constitutional council, whose task will be to draft a new proposal for a fundamental law. The result, however, opens a number of unknowns about the future of the process. With more than 99% counted, the right-wing bloc obtained 56.5% (35.5% of the extreme right of the Republican Party and 21% of the traditional Chile Seguro), the left and center lists reached 37.5% (28.5% Unity for Chile, of Boric, and 9% All for Chile) and the populist People's Party achieved 5.5%. The work of the constitutional council will be put to a plebiscite in December, after last September a large majority rejected the first attempt to change the architecture of the state. The president, Gabriel Boric, called on the winners of the Republican Party "not to make the mistakes" that his coalition made, while the far-right José Antonio Kast launched: "Chile has defeated a failed government."

President Gabriel Boric delivers statements from La Moneda

Gabriel Boric gives statements from La Moneda, livePhoto: Javier Torres (AFP)

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Follow the last hour of election day

Antonieta de la Fuente

The markets in Chile react to the triumph of the right: the dollar falls below 790 pesos

Although unlike the previous constituent process, the current one has generated less uncertainty in the markets, in any case they reacted to the result of yesterday's election of constitutional councilors and the triumph of the right. At its opening the dollar fell below 790 pesos with a drop of almost seven pesos compared to Friday's close. Analysts already anticipated that the elections would give an advantage to the right, in fact, at the end of last week the US currency was at its lowest value in two weeks. But the overwhelming vote of the right-wing lists, which together obtained 33 councilors, continued to push the dollar down.

ACT.8 MAY 2023 - 16: 56

Antonia LabordeSantiago (CHILE)

Republican Luis Silva, the most voted of the election

Luis Silva, 44, won 707,000 votes in the Metropolitan Region. He is the second most voted candidate in history, in any election other than the presidential one. The constitutional lawyer does not want a new Constitution. "We believe that the current Magna Carta is good," said the Republican Party representative and close to José Antonio Kast, of the extreme right. He holds a doctorate in law from the Universidad de Los Andes, is a former vice-rector of the same university, and a member of Opus Dei. Silva ran for election in the first constitutional process. He lost by 300 votes to Rodrigo Rojas Vade, a former conventionalist who invented having cancer, one of the first scandals to damage the previous convention. Open to pact with the populist People's Party.

ACT.8 MAY 2023 - 16: 44

Rocio Montes

How Republicans will act in the Constitutional Council

I highly recommend this interview with Aldo Mascareño, of the Center for Public Studies, CEP, where he assures that "Kast is obliged, now more than yesterday, to gamble for a successful constitutional process." "A new constitutional project rejected in the plebiscite of December this year, would hit him directly. Therefore, his party has incentives for this process to come to fruition, because it will no longer be a mere spectator. And he knows that, but so does the left," says the researcher at the liberal think tank.

The interview is by Antonieta de la Fuente.

ACT.8 MAY 2023 - 15: 09

Rocio Montes

There were six exit corrections to ensure parity

Yesterday, there were finally six corrections after the results to guarantee parity in the Constitutional Council, with 25 women, 25 men, plus a representative of the indigenous peoples. In this piece by Antonieta de la Fuente, EL PAIS explains how parity was calculated on this election day.

ACT.8 MAY 2023 - 14: 34

Rocio Montes

What happened to the parties of the former center-left Concertación, which did not compete together?

This is how it went for the forces that formed the governments of the Concertación, which governed between 1990 and 2010:
Christian Democracy = 3.78%Socialist Party = 5.96% PPD (the party of former President Lagos) = 3.59% Radical Party = 1.58%



Total? 14.91%, well below the 20.38% of the alliance between the Broad Front of Boric and the Communist Party, I approve Dignity.

ACT.8 MAY 2023 - 14: 36

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