Live Updates: Right-Wing Faces Debacle in Chile, Left Celebrates

23: 15 - The Mayor of Recoleta and communist presidential candidate, Daniel Jadue, has won with a massive percentage of the votes: "It makes us feel that there is also pride that we can represent a possibility for Chile." Jadue was re-elected as Recoleta Major with 66,31 percent of the votes.

"Unlike the projections, the right has had a disastrous result and is far from taking a third of the constituents, and that is a reason to rejoice," Jadue said. 

"The democratic sectors are called to unite to advance in constructing a new Chile," the communist leader added.

22: 45 - Chile's Electoral Service (Servel) published the first report on the vote-counting for the constituents, with 38.89 percent of the polls scrutinized. 

According to the data announced by Servel Board of Director's President Andrés Tagle, the organization Vamos por Chile takes the lead with 21, 62 percent, followed by Lista del Apruebo, with 15,10 percent. 

The experts point out that the voter turnout demonstrates the public rejection of the right and traditional political forces, which have not received significant support and are heading to lose the one-third of the Constitutional Convention required to veto any decision on the final draft.

 

16:40 - President Piñera is in La Moneda to monitor the counting of votes. Piñera will lead the meeting of the political committee, where the ministers of the Interior, Finance, Social Development, Segpres, and Segegob participate. Afterward, they will follow the vote counting.

18:00 - Polls close in all regions of Chile except Magallanes which finished earlier as it is in a different time zone. However, local media outlets report that people are arriving last minute.

As the vote-counting already started in the Magallanes Region, the first vote went to a candidate of the Mapuche people.

17:15 - The polls have closed in the Magallanes Region, Southtern Chile which is in a different time zone.

16:45 - The Secretary-General of the Presidency, Juan José Ossa, said that the results of the election of constituents would be known by 9:00 pm.

Earlier the government spokesman Minister Jaime Bellolio announced in a press conference that "as of yesterday, 40 percent of the people who had voted for the Plebiscite had voted". He added that the results would be available as of 20H00 local time (01H00 GMT) and specifically, the figures of the constituents "should be around eight or nine o'clock at night."

Today the polls close at 6 pm, but no polls can close until everyone in line has finished voting. The order of vote counting will prioritize the constituent convention members, then the regional governors, followed by the majors, and finally the councilmen.

16:15 -Left-wing activists and politicians are urging people to vote as the polls close at 18hrs00. The day has been marked by low participation, potentially jeopardizing the left's progressive agenda. 

teleSUR Chile's correspondent Paola Dragnic reports that left candidates warn that "low electoral participation in Chile would favor right-wing candidates who could be massively seated in the constitutional convention and make a Magna Carta similar to the one drafted during the dictatorship."

According to Interior Minister Rodrigo Delgado, "yesterday there were about 3 million voters, we believe that today there should be a higher figure than that, because on Sunday it was always projected that more people would vote than on Saturday, and with this election, we could be projecting to reach 7 million voters".

Former president Salvador Allende's grandson, said via Twitter that "the streets and the ballot boxes are spaces of struggle. Let's go to vote and keep fighting, demonstrating, organizing, and raising awareness."