Chilean lawmakers from the opposition and the ruling coalition have agreed to re-launch the development of a new constitution of the country. The corresponding agreement was signed on Monday by the chairmen of the lower and upper houses of Parliament.
“This dialogue lasted for several months and ended with an agreement in the name of Chile. We have to be responsible. The country needs certainty and wants to heal wounds, restore trust and, above all, get the process of drafting a constitution that will end in success,” Senate Speaker Alvaro Elisalde said at the ceremony, which was broadcast on the upper house’s YouTube channel. In the near future, the agreement will be submitted to Congress in the form of a bill on constitutional reform.
According to the legislators, the new constituent assembly should include 50 people who will be elected at the elections. The vote is proposed to be held in April 2023. The members of the Constituent Assembly will have to consider a preliminary draft of the constitution, which will be prepared for them by a committee of 24 experts. Half of them will be chosen by deputies, the other half by senators.
The agreement mentions several points that must necessarily be included in the new basic law, including the definition of Chile as a “democratic social state”, recognition of “indigenous peoples as part of a single and indivisible Chilean nation” and obligations to protect the environment. The parties that signed the document propose to hold a new referendum on approving the text of the constitution on November 26, 2023.
On October 25, 2020, a referendum was held in Chile, at which almost 80% of citizens voted for changing the country’s basic law. However, residents of the republic were dissatisfied with the work of the constituent assembly, which was accompanied by scandals, in which experts did not participate. On September 4, a new referendum was held in Chile, at which more than 60% of those who voted voted against the proposed project.
Chile now has a constitution adopted during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990). The government of ex-President Sebastian Pinera promised to initiate the process of drafting a new basic law during the wave of social protests that swept the country in October 2019.
Sourse: ТАСС
