Poll: Nearly Half of Chileans Oppose Trashing Nation’s Constitution After Voting In Communist Pro-Reform President

The latest round of polls from the first week of August in Chile show that a plurality of voters reject the implementation of a new, radical leftist constitution meant to replace its only 42-year-old core legal structure.

Chileans will head to the polls on September 4 to vote in a mandatory referendum to either approve or reject the new constitution. Rewriting Chile’s constitution was one of the demands emerging from a movement of violent leftist assaults that initially claimed to begin as protests against proposed public transit fare hikes in 2019. Leftist rioters burned churches and caused widespread havoc in the South American nation between 2019 and 2021. Protesters rapidly moved from demanding low subway fares to calling for a complete replacement of the nation’s constitution under the government of pro-China “center-right” President Sebastián Piñera, who complied and carried out the proceedings and referendum to start a Constitutional Convention tasked with drafting a new constitution.

The latest data from Chilean firm Activa’s Pulso Ciudadano (Citizen Pulse) — a poll conducted between August 2-5 — shows that 44.5 percent would vote against the new constitutional text, while only 29.9 would vote in favor.

📊#PulsoCiudadano : A 27 días del Plebiscito de Salida, un 44,5% declara que votará rechazo (–1,5 puntos); 29,9% apruebo (–0,2 puntos); 13,8% no sabe; 6,2% nulo o blanco; y 5,6% no votará. pic.twitter.com/r170v72H5f

— ACTIVA (@ActivaResearch) August 8, 2022

​​​​Given the mandatory nature of the upcoming referendum, Pulso Ciudadano’s forecast estimates that, with a hypothetical 100 percent of the electorate participating in the upcoming September 4 vote, 59.8 percent would vote against the new constitution, and 40.2 percent would vote in favor.

In a scenario where only 59.1 percent of the electorate participates, they estimate that 56 percent would vote against the new constitution and 44 percent would vote for it.

📊#PulsoCiudadano: En el tercer pronóstico electoral del #PlebiscitoDeSalida, en el escenario del votante probable (59,1%); 56% votaría rechazo (++1,8 puntos) y 44% votaría apruebo (–1,8 puntos). pic.twitter.com/gslM0xXPvM

— ACTIVA (@ActivaResearch) August 8, 2022

Other polling agencies in Chile have revealed similar results that show rejection to the proposed constitution. Cadem’s Plaza Publica poll for the first week of August 2022 showed that 47 percent would vote against versus 37 percent in favor, stating that if the trend continues, rejection would increase to 56 percent against 44 percent in favor by election day.

The Spanish EFE news agency recently collected the main reasons that have led Chileans to reject the proposal, which include the elimination of the nation’s Senate, sweeping changes to the country’s justice system, and complete de-penalization of abortion at a constitutional level.

The predominantly leftist Constitutional Convention sought to have an equal number of men and women among its 155 members in the name of “gender equality,” for which a law was passed in 2020 and signed by then-President Piñera to achieve such goals — ultimately, this resulted in more women having to give up their seats to men despite those women having being elected in free elections in May 2021.

The proposed constitution counts with the support of the nation’s far-left President, Gabriel Boric, who rose to political prominence as a Marist student protester and who described himself as “to the left of the PC [Communist Party]” during his 2021 presidential campaign. 

While Chileans reject the proposed new constitution, they seem keen to the prospect of doing away with the current one, implemented under former dictator Augusto Pinochet but heavily amended since his voluntary departure from the presidency.

A July 2022 poll carried out by Cadem showed that 74 percent of Chilean citizens support the idea of a new constitution for their country if the currently proposed one is rejected, agreeing with the nation’s leftist President Gabriel Boric and his idea of starting a new Chilean Constitutional Convention should the current proposal be rejected in the upcoming referendum – and despite 54.4 percent rejecting Boric’s 54.4 currently holding a percent disapproval rate.