MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chilean President pledges to improve new Constitution after it is approved

Most polls forecast a reject vote would prevail in September's plebiscite, despite Boric's hopes

Chilean President Gabriel Boric Font Monday said that there was consensus among the ruling coalition to “improve” the new Constitution once the draft is approved through a plebiscite in September.

The leftwing head of state also admitted the new document, which is to replace the one from 1980 under the military dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet Ugarte “is not perfect.”

Boric quoted former President Michelle Bachelet, who last week said that the new Constitution may not be perfect, but it was “close to what I always dreamed of.”

“Everything is perfectible, and we are going to carry forward this process after the plebiscite,” Boric insisted.

Chileans are to vote Sept. 4 to decide whether to approve the new Constitution or keep the Pinochet one which has been only partially reshaped after the return to democratic rule.

Rightwing and some center-left politicians have already announced they would vote against what they believe is too “radical,” while the left favors the “I approve” vote.

Others are calling for a great pact to reform the most conflictive aspects.

The new Carta Magna would declare Chile a plurinational social state based on the rule of law, with a regional and ecological approach, while enshrining fundamental rights such as universal public health care, free education, better pensions, and access to housing and water, in addition to the voluntary interruption of pregnancies and the elimination of the Senate.

Most polls now forecast a reject vote would win.

Boric also downplayed criticism from right-wing opponents for government spending on promoting the approval of the new document. “The main value and the role that the Government has to fulfill is that everybody has access to the proposal for the new Constitution,” the President argued. “If there is someone who is bothered that people have access to the new Constitution, he must be afraid of something in the text,” he added.