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Chile will vote this weekend on lawmakers drafting its new constitution, and the country’s center-right government will face a battle to maintain control of power ahead of the November presidential election.
On Saturday and Sunday there will also be government, mayoral and municipal polls that were postponed due to the pandemic, along with elections to populate the constitutional assembly.
Chile has not been spared the second wave of coronaviruses that affected Latin America despite having the highest vaccination rates in the region. Last month, confirmed infections reached the highest level in history, although they have since declined.
“Chile is doing several historical and unprecedented things at the same time. . . in the midst of the economic and health crisis caused by Covid-19, ”said Robert Funk, a political scientist.
The most important vote will select the members of the constituent assembly in charge of rewriting the constitution drawn up during the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet of 1973-90, which most Chileans consider illegitimate.
Nearly four-fifths of voters voted to reform the constitution in a referendum in November.
“These elections will likely define Chile’s institutional course over the next few decades,” said Gloria de la Fuente, of Chile’s transparency council. “The vote will have a profound effect on Chile’s political system and civil society. . . electing the authorities to advance the country’s agenda. “
However, turnover is expected to be lower than in the referendum. 58% of Chileans who participated in a recent Ipsos poll said they were less likely to vote because of the pandemic, while less than half knew they would vote for four different positions.
Chile has become in recent decades one of the richest nations in Latin America, even if the deep inequality that caused widespread social unrest in 2019 is far from being resolved.
President Sebastián Piñera’s low approval ratings since these demonstrations have been exacerbated by his government’s defeats in Congress, most notably pension reform.
Although the left-wing coalition that has dominated Chile for most of the past 30 years has disintegrated since Piñera returned to power in 2018, its unpopularity could allow the left and center-left to gain a majority of two. thirds to the constituent assembly necessary to approve each article. of the new document.
“If the right gets more than 30 percent [in the assembly], will be a tremendous victory, “said Lucia Dammert, a sociologist at the University of Santiago.
Despite the relative success of its vaccine implementation, Chile has been hit hard by the coronavirus crisis. Last summer’s high, with a weekly average of 352 cases per day per million, was surpassed last month, reaching 383. Cases have once again been close to 280 cases per million.
However, the Piñera government has been able to offer more generous Covid-related subsidies than most other countries in the region.
A feature of this weekend’s polls has been the emergence of independent candidates, Dammert said. Although, while traditional parties had been severely hurt by political turmoil, it would be “an uphill battle” for independents to gain recognition, he said.
There are also jokes like Pablo Maltes, husband of Pamela Jiles, a populist president of presidential hope, who is running for governor of the metropolitan region of the capital Santiago.
“If Maltes wins, there will definitely be something going on with Jiles,” Funk said, as he would suggest she was a strong presidential candidate.
Jiles, who has championed measures to withdraw funds from Chile’s famous private pension system, is one of the presidential aspirants, with no candidate on the right or left enjoying clear leadership.
The electoral reform of Michelle Bachelet’s previous left-wing government, which increased proportional representation means that Chileans will also elect regional governors for the first time in a country where power has traditionally resided firmly in Santiago. Elections will also renew nearly a third of local authorities.
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