Piñera Enacts Constitutional Reform For Plebiscite In 2020

Chilean President, Sebastián Piñera, enacted this Monday the constitutional reform that enables the plebiscite of April 26th, 2020 to carry out a new constitution in the country.

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At the "Palacio de la Moneda", Piñera said that the reform "defines" the path to achieve a constitution with a solid, legitimate and shared institutional framework to "face the challenges and opportunities of Chile's present and future.

"In this process, Chileans will have the first word in agreeing on the mechanisms and the last word in approving the content. We must recover unity and dialogue to build a better Chile," he wrote on his Twitter account.

Today, we enact Constitutional Reform leading to #Plebiscito2020 on April 26. In this process, Chileans will have the first word in agreeing on the mechanisms and the last word in approving the content. We must recover unity and dialogue to build a better Chile.

After more than two months of social protests against his policies, Piñera authorized this measure after it was approved by Congress, so the people will decide in a vote whether or not they need a new political constitution.

All the political parties that took part in the signing of the agreement "for social peace and a new constitution" on November 15 were invited to the event.

The agreement, in addition to calling for a plebiscite to ask citizens if they want a new constitution, includes the mechanisms they prefer for drafting it; among them, a mixed convention, made up of parliamentarians and elected citizens, or an assembly made up only by people chosen solely for that purpose.

Similarly, the President laid the foundations, he said a Constitution should have.

These include the protection of the value of life, freedom, dignity, diversity and respect for the human rights of all persons, the principle of the family as the core of society, and the recognition of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights.

He continued by pointing out that this should include the recognition of original peoples and that the State should guarantee public order. It also stated that the protection of the environment, the principle of the decentralization of the Nation and, finally, the responsibility of the State in the same acts that the State executes, should be included.

Piñera concluded by stating that "the Constitution is not a magic wand that solves all problems", and that progress must be made on all those issues that citizens need.

A week ago, a report, presented by ChAM to Piñera had shown that 86 percent of voters were in favor of establishing a mandatory vote for the April 2020 plebiscite prior to the drafting of the new Constitution.