MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Most Chileans oppose new Constitution

The present Constitutional Convention (CC) has drafted a bill with 387 articles

According to a survey released in Santiago Monday, 51% of Chileans would not support the new Constitution draft which seeks to replace the one from the Military Dictatorship era of General Augusto Pinochet.

The weekly poll by the consulting firm Plaza Pública Cadem also showed that one week short of bringing the final text to President Gabriel Boric Font to be put out for a plebiscite Sept. 4, only 33% of the voting population would vote head-on for its approval.

Cadem's study, carried out during the fourth week of June, also found that 16% of those consulted still needed to make up their minds.

The polling company also pointed out that approval had dropped in virtually all segments of society, especially among people aged over 55 (32%), while 47% of Chileans believe that the nays (“rejection”) will prevail, against 44% who foresee an approval. Cadem's figures the previous week were 43% and 50% respectively.

The study also found that 12% of those polled wanted the new Constitution to be approved “as is;” 29% want it to be approved and then undergo a series of reforms; 33% would rather see it rejected so that a new text can be drafted and 21% want it to be rejected to keep the Pinochet-era Charter in force.

Chile is undergoing a constitutional-reform process as a way out of the October 2019 social crisis during which Boric stepped into the limelight.

The present Constitutional Convention (CC) has drafted a bill with 387 articles. The body will dissolve itself July 4 so that the President calls for a mandatory plebiscite to be held Sept. 4.

Cadem also discovered confidence in the CC had fallen to merely 40% in recent weeks, a 9% drop.