Chile's constitution being rewritten

  •  The people of Chile voted in favour of rewriting the South American country’s nearly four-decade-old constitution, which dates back to the era of military dictatorship under General Augusto Pinochet.
THE REFERENDUM AND ITS PROVISIONS 
  • 78 per cent of people voted ‘yes’ in the referendum that was conducted following mass demonstrations against economic inequality across the country.
  • Chileans also voted to elect an assembly of 155 members to draw up the new constitution. 
  • The body will not include any active lawmakers. 
  • It will have a total of nine months, with the option of a one-time extension of three months, to finalise the new document.
BACKGROUND 
  • Weeks of protests against economic inequality led up to Chilean President Sebastián Piñera’s decision to hold the referendum in November last year. 
  • The demonstrations first took place in October after a small hike in metro rail fares in the capital city of Santiago.
  • The student-led protests that took place then were on a much smaller scale. 
  • Many students were filmed jumping over turnstiles without purchasing tickets as an act of protest.  
  • As tensions rose and incidents of arson and violence were reported, President Piñera declared a state of emergency and deployed military troops to repress the protests.
  • It was after the troops began to fill the streets that thousands of ordinary Chileans joined the demonstrations and the string of youth-led protests grew into a full-fledged movement. 
WHY REFORM IS NEEDED
  • The existing charter was drafted during the rule of dictator and military leader Pinochet without any popular inputs. 
  • The constitution was passed in a fraudulent plebiscite held in 1980.
  • It has widely been blamed for the inequities that exist in Chilean society even today.
  • The constitution laid down an electoral system that has for years limited political change by favouring incumbents and limiting the power of the left in the country. 
  • Pinochet ultimately lost power in a 1988 referendum, but the dictatorship-era constitution lived on. 
WAY TO THE REFERENDUM 
  • Despite the widespread protests against his conservative-leaning administration, Piñera took many weeks to agree to a referendum in 2019. 
  • Eventually, the government agreed to constitutional reform before finally giving in to the demand for a fresh constitution.
  • In November, the ruling alliance and opposition together released a 12-point ‘Agreement for Social Peace and a New Constitution’, which laid down the steps for rewriting the constitution with greater participation by the citizens.
  • The referendum was earlier scheduled to take place in April, but was later postponed to October due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
FOLLOW-UPS
  • Following the referendum, President Piñera congratulated the voters on their victory but warned that this was just the beginning of a much longer process. 
  • Voters will cast their votes once again on April 11 next year to elect the 155 members of the new constituent assembly.
  • The body will then have nine months to draft the constitution, with the option of a three-month extension. 
  • The new constitution will then be introduced following another referendum in 2022.

SOURCE: IE

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