Supporters of the "En Contra (Against)" celebrate the results of the referendum for Chile's new constitution proposal in Santiago, Chile, on Dec 17, 2023.

Chileans rejected a new constitution in a referendum on Dec 17, highlighting ongoing polarization in the Latin American country. It is the second proposed reform rejected in two years.

With almost all votes counted, 55.76 percent of Chileans voted against the new conservative text while 44.24 percent voted for it. The result means that Chile will retain its constitution adopted in 1980, during the rule of Augusto Pinochet, which is widely blamed for allowing companies and the elite to enrich themselves at the expense of the poor, working classes.

The door is closed for now to a modification of the current constitution, Carlos Adasme, former mayor of Maipo Island, an inland territory some 50 kilometers south of the capital Santiago, told China Daily.

President Gabriel Boric said that the country had become polarized and divided, noting that the government would not try to rewrite the constitution a third time but would, instead, seek to reform the country’s tax and pension systems

“What the citizens have indicated to us and what the citizens have indicated to the political class is that they are not satisfied. The proposals made do not fit with the citizens' feelings, therefore, they reject these alternatives and they hope that the political class will start working on those issues that are relevant today,” he said, calling pensions, health, education, and public safety matters of great concern.

President Gabriel Boric said that the country had become polarized and divided, noting that the government would not try to rewrite the constitution a third time but would, instead, seek to reform the country’s tax and pension systems.

“What the citizenry is demanding is a better capacity for dialogue, of consensus, but most of all of action,” Boric said during a television address after the results were announced.

The plebiscite was nationwide, with mandatory voting for 15.4 million people, of which 13 million went to the polls.

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The effort to rewrite the country’s constitution started in 2019 after protests, sometimes violent, against inequality. The first text, widely seen as liberal and progressive, guaranteed a long list of rights and freedoms, as well as making sweeping changes to the country’s judicial and political systems.  It was rejected by about 61 percent of voters in September 2022.

A handout picture released by Chile's presidency press office shows President Gabriel Boric addressing the nation after learning the results of the referendum for Chile's new constitution proposal at the La Moneda presidential palace in Santiago on Dec 17, 2023. (HANDOUT / CHILEAN PRESIDENCY VIA AFP)

The 2022 draft would have drastically altered the nation's basic principles, erasing long-standing South American customs, Pamela Pizarro, executive director of Cuide Chile, an organization that campaigns to protect family values, told China Daily at the time.

The second proposed text was more conservative, in some ways even more so than the existing constitution.

“This plebiscite is a second plebiscite that we have had as a result of a crisis of violence … where the stability of our country has been affected and this is practically traceable from the economic or social indicators of the last four years,” Javier Silva, political analyst at the Astral Citizen Foundation think tank, told China Daily.

Critics said the proposed text failed to protect indigenous rights, could have allowed restrictions to reproductive rights, and enshrined private sector participation in the provision of services such as health, education, and pensions

Silva explained that this vote represented the rejection of a proposed constitution that was primarily the product of the most conservative right-wing faction in Chile but also contained some left-leaning ideas.

Critics said the proposed text failed to protect indigenous rights, could have allowed restrictions to reproductive rights, and enshrined private sector participation in the provision of services such as health, education, and pensions.

“I voted rejection to change the constitution … and I will vote rejection against a constitution that enshrines principles of the radical left,” Teresa Marinovic, a columnist, politician, and member of the 2022 Constitutional Convention, said ahead of the recent referendum.

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After the 2022 failure, a new Constitutional Convention was elected in May 2023, to draft a different text.

The latest draft was handed over to Boric and the Chilean public on Nov 7, marking the beginning of a nationwide debate and discussion on the proposed constitution.

Chile sticking with the 1980 constitution is a win for the right because the text has been legitimized three times, undermining left-wing claims that the constitution is of spurious origin, Juan Carlos Aguilera, founder of Club Polites, a group that promotes civic dialogue, told China Daily.

Also, Boric has to govern using a constitution that he has criticized as being established during the military regime.

Aguilera said the vote has turned out in favor of a constitution that was always said to be undemocratic because it represents what many refer to as a dictatorship.

The writers are freelance journalists for China Daily.