By Dave Sherwood and Fabian Cambero
SANTIAGO (Reuters) – Chile’s long-standing political parties were reeling on Monday following their bruising defeat in an election for delegates to rewrite the constitution that sowed doubts over their future as well as the fate of the country’s free-market model.
The ruling center-right coalition failed during the weekend vote to pick up the one-third of seats necessary to block radical changes during the convention. And the center-left – which has dominated politics since Chile’s return to democracy in 1990 – garnered less support than leftists who have been pushing for wholesale change to the ‘Chilean model’ that has been credited with creating booming growth, but also fomenting deep inequality.
“This is a rejection of the political system in general, as evidenced by a level of abstention near 58%. There is (also) a rejection of traditional political parties who obtained a lower share of the vote than in all the previous elections,” political analyst Guillermo Holzmann said.
Jorge Fuentes, a 19-year old student from Santiago, said he had voted but was disappointed by how few others had.
“There were many people who supposedly wanted a change and in the end almost no one voted, I expected more participation,” he said.
The low turnout and upended political panorama means that almost a third of delegates were independents, many of whom would “arrive with the desire to contribute and with common sense, not ideology,” Holzmann said.
The two-day, weekend election of the 155 delegates who will draft the magna carta follows widespread protests in 2019 that led to billions of dollars in losses and damages in cities throughout Chile. Chileans in 2020 voted overwhelmingly to overhaul the country’s dictatorship-era constitution.
Chile’s peso plunged on Monday and its IPSA stock exchange took a sharp hit after President Sebastian Pinera’s ‘Vamos por Chile’ coalition flopped.
Rating’s agency S&P said it saw “modest uncertainty” in Chile following the surprise result ahead of presidential elections in November, but predicted that economic growth would recover rapidly as the pandemic recedes and copper prices surge, a boon to government coffers in the world’s top producer of the red metal.
“We expect Chile’s transition to a new constitution over the next couple of years to be stable, sustaining investor confidence,” the agency said in a note on Monday.
Fitch also underscored Chile’s solid financial position, noting it felt the country “will be able to withstand significant political and economic uncertainties.”
Delegates are set to meet shortly to define the rules of the process, and will then spend a maximum 12-month period debating and crafting the new text before Chileans vote on the final product. If it fails, Chile will revert to the current text.
Joaquin Villarino, a Chilean mine industry veteran and head of umbrella group Consejo Minero, told Reuters he hoped the delegates would embrace moderation.
“This space for dialogue must be characterized by serious and well-founded discussions,” he said, warning that if short-term extremists gain the upper hand, “there will be reasons for pessimism.”
Political risk has spiked in top copper producers Chile and Peru as rising poverty and debt levels have put mining wealth into the crosshairs of angry citizens and leaders.
(Reporting by Dave Sherwood and Fabian Cambero, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)
