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Chileans go on to explore their path ahead after a majority of voters rejected a new proposed constitution in a nationwide poll while many people keep hope for changes.
More than 12.9 million Chileans went to the polls on Sept 4 to cast their votes in a referendum on whether to adopt a proposed new constitution and almost 62 percent of them voted against the new constitutional text.
While polls ahead of the vote were indicative of a rejection, the margin of the result took many by surprise and posed a challenge to President Gabriel Boric.
Following the results, President Boric addressed the nation and called the Congress and civil society to build a new proposal.
"This decision by Chilean men and women requires institutions and politicians to work for a proposal that unites us and represents us all," he said. "As president, I humbly accept the message of the citizenship."
The Sept 4 plebiscite marked the end of a divisive campaign and a journey that started in 2020 when the country voted in favor of replacing the existing 41-year-old constitution put in place during the government of Augusto Pinochet.
In 2020, 78 percent voted for a constitutional change, following a wave of protests that hit the country in 2019. However, this time, the proposed new text went beyond what many of them expected.
"The citizens want a new constitution, but the one proposed, in the form and in the content, was not what was expected," said Carlos Adasme, former mayor of Maipo Island, an inland territory 50 kilometers south of Santiago, who backed approving the new constitution.
The new Constitution, with over 400 articles, was written by 155 Chileans specially chosen to develop the document.
"Our society is not prepared for the proposed changes. They were very sharp," said Adasme.
Many of the changes introduced in the new draft would have shifted the country's own foundational values, leaving behind long-established traditions of the South American nation, Pamela Pizarro, executive director of Cuide Chile Foundation, said.
The vote was clear. Most Chileans agree on the need for a new constitution, but not drastic changes yet.
"After traveling from Scotland with family, arriving in London to vote. We are six friends for Rejection. Hopeful that the new constitution deserves a second chance. One for all: left, center, and right. A hug!," León Carmona, a lawyer and PhD student living in Edinburgh, tweeted.
"We are very confident that Chile will return to the path of common sense and go for a new constitution that truly unites us all, that truly makes us flourish as a country and welcomes us all without distinction," Bernardo Fontaine, a former member of the constitutional assembly and one of the leaders of the campaign against the final draft of the new constitution, said.
Fontaine, like most people in the country, expects the constitutional process to continue, even with the Sept 4 rejection.
Some political parties have already mapped a route forward. The question now is how this will happen.
Juan Carlos Aguilera, founder of Polites Club, an initiative to promote civic dialogue, said people expect to have a new constituent assembly elected, with less participation from indigenous minorities, and with the participation of committee of experts that includes some of the members of the previously elected constituent assembly.
The other option, Aguilera said, is to have the current constitution, the one from 1980, reformed and used as a base text to introduce changes.
"This means that the constitutional power goes back to the Congress," he said.
Like Aguilera, Adasme said that the path forward is not clear, beyond the fact that the country wants and needs a new constitution.
"Are we going to vote for a new constitution, or are we going to take this draft as a base? There are a lot of questions about what is ahead," said Adasme.
The writer is a freelance journalist for China Daily.
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