The far right prevails in new constituent elections in Chile

(CNN Spanish) – The list of the Chilean Republican Party imposed, on Sunday, in the new elections for members of the Constituent Assembly, the body responsible for drafting a new proposal for Magna Carta for citizens after the failure of the September 2022 process.

With 99.98% of the polling stations counted, the Chilean Elections Department (Servil) reported that the far-right list led by former presidential candidate Jose Antonio Caste received 3,468,115 votes (35.40%), managing to secure 22 seats out of a total of 50.

The List of Unity for Chile, which includes ruling party parties, received 2,800,973 votes (28.59%), winning 17 seats. It is followed by the list of traditional right-wing groups, Chile Seguro (21.07%), which won 11 seats. Then the invalid votes, which totaled 2,119,488 ballots (16.98%).

Supporters of the far-right Republican Party celebrate the victory of their candidates during an election to elect members of the Constitutional Council that will draft a proposed new constitution, at the Republican Party headquarters in Santiago on May 7, 2023. (Photo credit: JAVIER TORRES/AFP via Getty Images)

Chile has defeated a failed government, and this must be said loud and clear. “The government has been unable to face the crisis of insecurity, the migration crisis, the economic crisis and the social crisis in terms of health, education, housing and many others,” said Jose Antonio Cast, from the headquarters of the Republican Party, at a press conference.

For his part, the President of Chile, Gabriel Boric, confirmed Sunday that “the previous process failed, among other things, because we did not know how to listen to each other among those who think differently. I want to call, from now on, the Republican Party – Whoever obtained an indisputable first majority in this election – not to make the same mistake we made then. This process cannot be an operation of vendetta, but rather of putting Chile and its people first, before partisan or personal interests.”

With these results, the Chilean right as a whole achieved 33 constituent members and passed three-fifths of a quorum, so it would be able to easily approve and amend regulations.

In this compulsory vote election, 12,483,719 people voted, according to Servel data.