Mr. Director:
On May 15th and 16th, the most momentous electoral process ever carried out in Chile’s democratic history will take place. As we know, in addition to the election of councillors and mayors, Regional Governors and, for the only time, Constituents are elected for the first time.
On the night of May 16, it will be a night that belongs to the Great History of Chile. A night that belongs to those who approved of changing our Constitution, just as it belongs to those who thought differently. This is a night that will require generous, sober and republican behavior from those who legitimately believe there are triumphant results. Such an effort shall be particularly relevant and transcendent in the context of the choice of Constituents.
In that election, election results will not yield winners or defeats, nor will they necessarily reflect the political representation of the parties. The legitimacy of the Convention will be played in the first few minutes after the results of 16 May are known. It is at that very moment that political forces, especially those who may have chosen seats, will be required to conduct exemplary prudence and sobriety. No festivities in the venues, no triumphant photos.
Citizens are not interested in who kept such or what Municipality, with more or less population governed, let alone how many constituents managed to choose each party.
The great test of Democracy that night will be in the “sense of generosity and renunciation” that parties must have, in which their most important triumph and, which will surely be widely valued by citizens, will be to overcome the temptation to appropriate “the historical process” and especially the “Convention”.
On the night of May 16, it will be a night without a father, or rather a night whose paternity belongs equally and in identical proportions, to each inhabitant of the Republic, has voted favorably in the plebiscite, rejected the idea of a New Constitution or simply did not participate.
That night we will all feel the responsibility to start building a new country, in which politics is called to proceed with weight, mesura and triumphary abstinence.
Jorge A. Cash Sáez
lawyer
