Chile to choose constitutional council, but apathy reigns

Chile will vote Sunday to choose 50 delegates to a council that will draw up a new Constitution, after voters overwhelmingly rejected a proposed charter last year that was widely described as one of the world’s most progressive.
It’s the latest step in a process to replace the country’s dictatorship-era charter that began with massive protests in 2019. For the most part, though, Chileans appear to be greeting this latest phase with a collective shrug.
The election Sunday will be a key step in the effort to come up with a new proposal for a Constitution after 62% of voters rejected the previous proposed charter in September, which was the first in the world to be written by a convention split equally between male and female delegates. Critics had said the document was too long, lacked clarity and went too far in some of its measures, which included characterizing Chile as a plurinational state, establishing autonomous Indigenous territories, and prioritizing the environment and gender parity.