MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Piñera sets July 4 as opening day for Chile's Constitutional Convention

The Convention's role is not to “govern or legislate,” Piñera said

Chile's President Sebastián Piñera Sunday announced the new constituent assembly is scheduled to open sessions on July 4,

The 155 delegates chosen in the mid-May elections must draft a new Constitution to replace the one from the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship.

In fact, a new Constitution was one of the demands during the social outbreak of 2019.

The assembly will have nine months to draft a new Magna Carta for the country, as determined at the polls in the plebiscite of October 25 last. The deadline can be extended for up to three additional months.

With the new Fundamental Law, Chile will have a new Constitution and remove the last remnants of Pinochet's regime, which some people even consider to be illegitimate because it was approved in 1980 under a military dictatorship. Once drafted, the new Constitution must be approved within 60 days in a new plebiscite.

Piñera said that the Convention “represents a great opportunity to achieve broad and solid agreements, which allow giving rise to a Constitution that is recognized and respected by all and constitutes a great framework of unity, stability and projection. towards the future.'

He added that it “will be a historic milestone” because “for the first time in our history we will be writing democratically and with broad citizen participation,'' he said.

Piñera insisted that although “this Convention has important degrees of autonomy that we must all respect,” people should not forget that “its mission is not to govern or legislate.”

The Convention will be made up of 78 men and 77 women and will have the participation of 17 representatives of indigenous peoples.

In its first session, it must elect a president and vice president and autonomously define the rules of its internal regulations.

Chileans elected a majority of independents in the mid-May elections for the Convention, which according to analysts evidenced a punishing vote for the traditional parties, especially the centre-left opposition that competed fragmented.