Over 78% Of Chileans Support Redrafting Constitution In Referendum - Electoral Service

SANTIAGO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 26th October, 2020) Over 78 percent of Chilean people voted for rewriting the constitution during a referendum, the Chilean Electoral Service published on its official website on Monday.

After 99.85 percent of ballots were counted, the electoral authorities said that 5,886,421, or 78.27 percent of the votes, were in favor of redrafting the constitution. Over 1.6 million votes, or 21.73 percent, were against the changes.

The referendum was held in Chile on Sunday despite the coronavirus pandemic.

In total, the Chilean Electoral Service opened 48,000 ballot boxes in 2,800 polling stations so that 14,855,719 eligible citizens could participate in the vote. Moreover, the voting was held in 65 countries with over 59,000 eligible Chilean voters.

The constitution of Chile was adopted in 1980 under the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.

The decree on holding the constitutional plebiscite was signed at the end of December of 2019. The referendum was one of the main demands of protesters that rocked Chile last year.

The constitutional referendum contained two questions: "Do you want a new constitution?" and "What body should draw up a new constitution?" After elaborating on the text of the new constitution, there will be a new referendum.