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Chile will vote among legislators this weekend to draft a new constitution, and the country’s center-right government will fight to maintain control of power before the November presidential election.
Polls for governors, mayors and municipalities delayed due to the pandemic will also be held on Saturdays and Sundays, and elections will be held to fill the Constituent Assembly.
Although Chile has the highest vaccination rate in the region, it is not immune to the second coronavirus that hits Latin America. The number of confirmed infections last month reached the highest level ever, although it has declined since then.
Chile is doing several historic and unprecedented things at the same time. . . In the economic and health crisis caused by Covid-19,” said political scientist Robert Funk.
The most important vote will be the members of the Constituent Assembly, responsible for rewriting the constitution drafted during the 1973-90 dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet, which most Chileans consider illegal.
In the November referendum, nearly four-fifths of voters agreed to reform the constitution.
Gloria de la Fuente of the Chilean Transparency Commission said: “These elections may define the institutional process in Chile in the next few decades.” “Votes will affect Chile’s political system and civil society. Have a far-reaching impact… to elect the authorities to advance the country’s agenda.”
However, the turnover is expected to be lower than the referendum. Approximately 58% of Chileans who participated in Ipsos’s most recent poll said that due to the pandemic, they are less likely to vote, and less than half of them know they will vote for four different positions.
Chile has become one of the richest countries in Latin America in recent decades, even if the severe inequality that triggered widespread social unrest in 2019 has not been resolved.
Since these demonstrations, President Sebastián Piñera’s low approval rating has exacerbated his government’s failure in Congress, especially in pension reform.
Since Piñera returned to power in 2018, the left-wing coalition that has ruled Chile for the past 30 years has collapsed, but his unpopularity may give the left and the center-left the Constituent Assembly needed to pass every clause Two-thirds of most new documents.
“If the right gets more than 30% [in the assembly], This will be a huge victory. “Sociologist Lucia Dammert of the University of San Diego said.
Despite its relative success in vaccines, Chile has been hit hard by the coronavirus crisis. Last month surpassed the peak of 352 daily cases per week last summer, reaching 383 cases. Since then, the number of cases has dropped to around 280 cases per million.
However, the Piñera government is able to provide more Covid-related subsidies than most other countries in the region.
Dummert said that a feature of the polls this weekend is the emergence of independent candidates. She said that although traditional parties have been severely injured in the political turmoil, it will be a “hard battle” for independents to gain recognition.
There are also ambitious figures, such as Pablo Maltes, who is the husband of Pamela Jiles, who the populist president hopes for. He is running for the capital of the Santiago Metropolitan Region. Governor.
“If Maltes wins, then Jiles must have some problems,” Funk said, which shows that she is a strong contender for the presidency.
Giles has always advocated measures to withdraw funds from Chile’s self-financing private pension system. He is one of many presidential candidates, and there is no obvious lead on either side.
Electoral reforms under the previous left-wing government, Michelle Bachelet (Michelle Bachelet), and the increase in proportional representation, mean that for the first time Chileans will elect a regional governor in a country that has traditionally firmly occupied Santiago. The election will also allow nearly a third of the local authorities to renew their contracts.
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