1980 Chilean constitutional referendum

In its temporary dispositions, the document ordered the transition from the former military government, with Augusto Pinochet as President of the Republic, and the Legislative Power of the Government Junta (formed by the heads of the Navy, Air Force, National Police, and a representative of the Army, the head of the Army being President of the Republic), to a civil one, with a time frame of eight years, during which the legislative power would still be the Military Junta.

It set the first eight-year presidential term for Pinochet, with a referendum in the eighth year, in which only one candidate, nominated by the Junta, would be up for acceptance.

On this date a transition period of eight years began, during which General Pinochet, acting as President of the Republic and the Military Regime (Junta), exercised constituent and legislative power.

The results of the referendum were disputed by the political opposition, headed by former senator Patricio Aylwin, and 46 other representatives, who argued that there had not been any electoral records and that the only anti-fraud measure was an ink mark on the thumb, which was easily removed.

[13] Other accusations of fraud are related to the fact that the mayors of the time (appointed by the dictatorship) held a lottery to define the members of each polling station, which were made up exclusively of supporters of the regime and collaborators belonging to large companies such as Soprole, Mingo, Neut Latour Forestal, Banco de Chile, BHC, Lan Chile, Banco Sud Americano and Embotelladora Andina, among others.

[14] In December 1987, Cauce magazine published a report prepared by Eduardo Hamuy in conjunction with the Academy of Christian Humanism in which observations made at 981 polling stations in Greater Santiago on the day of the 1980 plebiscite were compiled, and numerous cases of fraud were found.