Chile: in the event of "no" to the new Constitution, it will be necessary to "start everything from scratch", announces Gabriel Boric

Chile, July 4, 2022: Maria Elisa Quinteros, President of the Constituent Assembly and Gaspar Dominguez, Vice President, present the draft fundamental law which will be put to the vote of the citizens on September 4.

REUTERS - PABLO SANHUEZA

Text by: RFI Follow

1 min

In Chile, there is still a month and a half before the mandatory referendum of September 4: "yes" or "no" to the new Constitution.

According to the latest polls, the "no" could win and the country could then keep the current Constitution, written under the dictatorship.

President Gabriel Boric, who is in favor of the new constitutional text, is preparing for this eventuality.

In a television interview, he said this week that if the new Constitution were rejected, "everything would have to be started from scratch".

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with our correspondent in Santiago,

Naïla Derroisné

Gabriel Boric

anticipates and plans after the referendum.

If the new Constitution is rejected, "it will take new elections, to elect a new assembly which will draft a new constitutional text", he said.

And his argument is that Chile voted very clearly in the first referendum in October 2020 in favor of a new Constitution written by people elected by the citizens.

 To read also

: in Chile, the draft new Constitution submitted to the president before his vote by referendum

Several members of his sector have criticized his announcement, they who only consider one possible outcome to the referendum: the approval of the new constitutional text.

According to a member of the presidential coalition, "what must be done today is to concretize the establishment of the new Constitution instead of considering scenarios that are still fictitious", she was annoyed. 

The opposition, for its part, welcomed the president's words rather well, since indeed the right rejects the new Constitution and therefore considers it "reasonable" and "realistic" that the government is preparing for this eventuality. 

The two camps still have seven weeks to try to convince the undecided because three Chileans out of 10 do not yet know what they will vote for on

September 4th

.

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  • Chile

  • Gabriel Boric