Chile: 3,300 People Apply to Rewrite Chile's Constitution

Chile's Electoral Service (SERVEL) Tuesday reported that 3,300 candidates ran for seats on the Commission that change the Constitution written by the Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship (1973-1990).

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"We are three months away from the biggest election in our history," SERVEL President Patricio Santamaria said as he announced the end of the nomination process.

On April 11, over 14 million people are eligible to elect 155 members of the Constituent Assembly. That same day, Chilean citizens also will vote for new governors, mayors, and city councilors.

"This election will be the most important one in the last 40 years," Santamaria added, recalling that having 22,000 candidates for the 2,768 contested positions is a record for Chilean electoral history.

In the next few hours, SERVEL will release the official list of candidates who had until Tuesday midnight to fill out the application form.

Since October 25, the ruling party "Let's go, Chile" and the opposition negotiated their candidacy proposals as they searched for sponsorship from independent political movements.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, SERVEL allowed candidates to apply online, along with the traditional face-to-face method.

According to authorities, 7,642,418 out of the 14,900,089 people eligible to vote are women, and 7,257,671 are men.

During the October 25 Plebiscite, the "Approve" side won with 78 percent agreeing to draft a new Constitution.