The Chilean Chamber of Deputies approved on Wednesday “by 109 votes in favor, 37 against and 2 abstentions” the reform that allows the initiation of a new constituent process to draft a new Constitution.
The regulation, which will now go to President Gabriel Boric for promulgation, provides for the creation of a Constitutional Council (50 members), a Commission of Experts (24 members) and a Technical Committee on Admissibility.
The 24 members of the Committee of Experts appointed by the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate will start working on the design of a new project on March 6. They will have three months to prepare the proposed Constitutional text.
For its part, the Constitutional Council will work for up to five months on the basis of the said Commission’s proposal for discussion and approval. The members of the Council will be elected by the citizens on May 7 following a gender parity criterion.
Likewise, the Technical Committee on Admissibility will begin to function on March 6 with 14 people, on a parity basis. Its purpose is to safeguard respect for the 12 institutional bases that are part of the “Agreement for Chile,” signed by most of the parties with parliamentary representation last December 12.
On December 17, a plebiscite will be held, with a mandatory vote, to accept or reject the new constitutional text. This time, citizens will have to decide between “For” and “Against.”
The last constituent process in the plebiscite of September 4, 2022, met with rejection by 61 percent of the votes, compared to 38 percent approval. Thus, the Constitution promulgated in 1981, during the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet, remains in force in the country.
Source : teleSUR
