The Commission of Constitutional Experts unanimously approved the first preliminary norms that will integrate the draft of the proposal for a new Constitution of Chile, after last week the body finished drafting the articles.
Of the 14 chapters that make up the index of the draft Constitution, this Monday the green light was given to three: Foundations of the Constitutional Order; Fundamental rights and freedoms, constitutional guarantees and duties; and Political representation and participation.
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Each chapter, which is voted on in a general way this week and, subsequently, in a particular way, has to be approved by 3/5 of the 24 commissioners, that is, it needs 14 votes of the plenary to then be sent to each subcommittee, where it will be discussed in particular and the amendments will be entered, which will then also have to be validated by the plenary of experts.
“There are pending challenges for the period of amendments, so we must make a greater effort in terms of guaranteeing essentiality, so that the rights that have been fully safeguarded can be duly protected and the rules are not programmatic or merely declarative,” said National Renewal (RN) expert Marcela Peredo.
Some of the rules proposed in the Political System Commission, for example, include establishing an electoral threshold of 5% for parties to access Congress; limit re-election to two non-consecutive terms; strengthen political parties or penalize wayward parliamentarians, among others.
“I want to highlight the strengthening of political parties, understanding that they play a fundamental role in representative democracy, as mediators between the State and citizens,” said Apruebo Dignidad expert Antonia Rivas.
The proposed rules of the 14 chapters were drafted in the respective commissions, with great reservation and within a period of 15 days, unlike the previous constituent process, in which the drafting in the commissions lasted 5 months.
The articles that emerged from this brief process are the result of the consensus of the experts, who face the challenge of dispatching the entire draft norm in two months to deliver the text to the Constitutional Council that will be elected on May 7.
The Committee of Experts was installed on March 6 after being appointed by Congress (12 were chosen by the Chamber of Deputies and 12 by the Senate) and is in charge of preparing in three months a draft of the new Constitution that serves as a basis for the councilors who will be elected the fifth month of the year at the polls.
The elected Constitutional Council will be able to approve or reject the proposals of the experts and the text resulting from this process will have to be approved, finally, by the citizens in a plebiscite with compulsory vote on December 17.
The group of experts, one of the novelties of this new process, generates some reluctance in sectors of society, afraid that Parliament will “tweet” the drafting of the new Constitution.
Despite the rejection in the September plebiscite, there is consensus on the need to replace the current Constitution, although there is a certain “constituent fatigue” and the new process does not arouse the same interest as the previous one.
Chapters adopted by experts
During the discussion of the norms of chapter I, Foundations of the constitutional order, the importance of the proposals and the pending challenges were exposed, together with the minimum consensus reached, highlighting the importance of the social and democratic State of law, gender parity and recognition of indigenous peoples, among other aspects.
Regarding the social and democratic state of law, the expert of the Socialist Party (PS) Flavio Quezada highlighted its value in society and importance in the new constitutional text. On the same subject, the commissioner supported by RN Jaime Arancibia valued the constitutional scenario and the importance of social coverage in various areas of today’s society.
The concept of family was another point of debate, included in the first chapter, where Commissioner Rivas made the point of “talking about the multiplicity of families” in the constitutional text. For his part, UDI Commissioner Hernán Larraín, explained that “we are building a society from the people and not from the State.”
In the discussion of the first section, the recognition of indigenous peoples was also addressed., occasion where the expert sponsored by the PPD Verónica Undurraga, highlighted the constitutional rank that should be granted to them and announced that “we will promote an amendment to include indigenous seats in the National Congress.” On the same subject, union commissioner Máximo Pavéz indicated that it is an outstanding debt, under the concept of a single nation and the institutionality that will protect its rights.
During the debate and vote on the articles of chapter II: Fundamental rights and freedoms, constitutional guarantees and duties, the members of the Expert Commission highlighted as essential to have a chapter on civil and political rights, highlighting the consensus to include the right to life, personal integrity, equality before the law, personal liberty and individual security. the right to sexuality and reproduction, the right of children and adolescents, the right to culture, among others.
Faced with the matter, the commissioner of RD Domingo Lovera, listed the scope of action and importance of the articles included in the second chapter. In the same way, RN Commissioner Catalina Salem, celebrated that social rights have been considered that are the ones that matter most to citizens, and that the legislator will have the task of articulating them.
On the other hand, the interventions during the debate in the plenary session of the commissioners regarding chapter III, Political representation and participation, were focused on highlighting the importance and value of political representation, whatever the electoral system that governs, which supposes a “correlate” with the community, since the allocation of positions of popular election should be a sample or significant portion of the composition of each society. Parties are recognized for their key role in democracy and the criterion of women’s participation in the different instances of power is also incorporated.
In this line, the commissioner of Evópoli Sebastián Soto, addressed the political parties, their regulatory framework and their actions in the face of the challenges proposed by today’s society and the PS commissioner Catalina Lagos, highlighted the challenges of parity in political parties.
The Expert Committee developed between 3:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m., where it was required for the favorable approval of the proposals of constitutional norms the favorable vote of 3/5; However, these were ratified unanimously by its 24 members.
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