MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

“Historic” agreement for reforming Chilean constitution.

Fourteen years after recovering democracy Chile managed a political agreement that will open the way to reforming some of the harshest and most controversial aspects of the 1980 Constitution inherited from the military regime of General Pinochet.

The three pages document was agreed in the Senate between the ruling coalition, opposition parties and government.

Reforms include eliminating life and nominated Senators, restoring Chilean presidents the power to remove Armed Forces commanders and giving citizenship to the children of Chileans who abode overseas but who have lived in the country for twelve months.

This means that among others former president Eduardo Frei must abandon his Senate seat March 11, 2006 as well as nine others mainly retired military commanders.

However there was a limited agreement regarding the binominal electoral system (which ensures the opposition congressional representation). The several articles will be removed from the Constitution and incorporated to the Organic Constitutional legislation regarding elections, voting and referendums.

The two positions regarding the presidential mandate remain unchanged, the ruling coalition favours reducing it to four years and the opposition leaving it at six years.

"With this meeting we have reached an agreement that can only be described as historic. I believe Chilean democracy has given a significant step forward", said Senate president Hernán Larraín who belongs to the conservative opposition.

Interior Minister emphasized that "from now on we will certainly have a Constitution, which can always be perfected, but from which we will definitively eliminate some issues that impeded essential agreements and consensus for democracy".

The document was signed by the Senate's president and vice-president, the Interior Minister and one Congressman for each of the political parties with Congressional representation.

The reforms had been in the Senate for four years.