Chile Presents Proposal for a New Constitution

The text will be submitted to a referendum on September 4.

"Today we start a new phase," Chilean President Gabriel Boric said Monday after receiving the Constitutional Assembly's final text of a proposed new constitution. 

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The official presentation ceremony took place in the old National Congress building, where 155 constitutional assembly members were in charge of drafting the proposal over the course of a year. 

The text consists of 178 pages, 388 articles and 57 transitory norms. It focuses on social rights, gender equality, indigenous autonomy and the environment.

Now begins a two-month campaign for voters to approve or reject the proposed text during a mandatory referendum to be held on September 4.

The plenary session of the Chilean Constitutional Convention delivered the final proposal for the country's new Magna Carta. President Gabriel Boric called a referendum for September 4, where the approval or rejection of the new Constitution will be decided.

At the ceremony, President Gabriel Boric said that "this draft Constitution and the referendum, which will be held on September 4, is not and should not be a judgment of the Government. It is the debate on the future and destiny of Chile for the next four or five decades."

The president also called upon the citizens to debate in these two months "on the scope of the proposed text, but not on falsehoods, distortions or catastrophic interpretations alien to reality."

"It will once again be the people who have the last word on their destiny," the head of state said. 

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