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Chile begins drafting new constitution
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In Chile, the elections for the candidacy of the Constitutional Convention, a panel of 155 delegates of equal gender parity, were chosen over the weekend from multiple political parties across the spectrum to draft the new constitution, according to
The decision for the rewrite comes after the city of Santiago saw approximately two million citizens take to the streets in 2019 to protest a hike in subway fare and the entire structure of their economy.
After months of protesting, President Sebastian Piñera announced a compromise to the people, allowing them to reevaluate their constitution and consider drafting a new one. The vote to approve the rewrite, originally set for April 26, was postponed due to COVID-19 until October 2020, where a plebiscite was held, and it was decided that an overwhelming majority of Chileans wanted to have a new constitution drafted by elected members of a Constitutional Convention.
Gender parity had been assured before the vote took place â for the first time ever in a national constitutional project â yet female candidates performed so well that the eventual adjustment ended up favouring men.
In late 2019, a mass protest movement exploded in Chile, targeting the countryâs insulated and disconnected political elite as well inequalities engendered by the dictatorshipâs economic model. From the mass of demands that arose from the demonstrations, a constitutional referendum was scheduled as political partiesâ response to the crisis.
As people gathered in Plaza Italia in Santiago that night, dubbed Plaza Dignidad as it became the epicentre of the protest movement, the word âRebornâ was projected triumphantly onto a nearby building â but the rejuvenation of the political landscape was only finalised when Chileans came to vote this weekend.