Chile Begins Second Day of Elections

On Sunday, Chile continues the voting process in which over 14.9 million people were eligible to choose 155 members of the convention that will draft the new Constitution, 16 governors, 345 mayors, and 2,252 councilors.

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As on Saturday, polling stations are expected to receive votes from 08:00 am to 6 pm local time. An estimated 20 percent of voters have already cast their ballots on the first day of a historic election, which was postponed from April 11 due to the new wave of the pandemic affecting the South American country.

Yesterday, the beginning of the elections faced some difficulties with the installation of the polling stations. However, the Chilean Electoral Service (SERVEL) considered that 99.7 percent of them were already in operation after midday.

At the end of the first day of voting, the authorities sealed the ballot boxes through a rigorous procedure that prevents any type of manipulation. In addition, 23,000 military personnel were in charge of guarding the ballot boxes where some three million Chileans have already cast their vote.

The counting of votes will begin at the end of Sunday's elections. While some results could start to be published during the course of the night, the announcement of definitive results could take a week.

The current electoral process emerged as a consequence of massive protests against the neoliberal state inherited from the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990).

In the convention that will draft the new constitution, indigenous peoples have 17 reserved seats and 50 percent of the members will be women. For the first time in 200 years of republican life, the new Chilean constitution will be drafted by representatives elected by popular vote.