Photo: Chilean President Gabriel Boric addresses the nation on Sunday night. Source: Chilean Presidency.
On Sunday, 61.8 percent of Chileans voted to reject the Constitutional Assembly’s draft, while 38.1 percent voted to approve it. Nearly 13 million of 15 million Chileans and residents who were eligible to vote cast ballots across more than 3,000 voting centers. The draft, which took three years to write, sought to codify many social and economic rights for historically marginalized groups. If passed, the 388-article document would have characterized Chile as a “plurinational” state and proposed to consider customary law for Indigenous people. President Gabriel Boric received the result with “humility” and later referred to it as “one of the most difficult moments politically that I have had to accept.”
On Sunday night, Boric appealed for unity and dialogue to bring a broader group of voices to draft a new charter. On Tuesday, he reshuffled his cabinet and appointed new ministers of the interior, health, science, energy, and presidency with people closer to the center of the political spectrum to give the government “greater cohesion.” Boric said he plans to encourage the drafting of a new constitution with support from Congress and other political factions.
