It was approved and promulgated under the military dictatorship headed by Augusto Pinochet, being ratified by the Chilean citizenry through a referendum on September 11, 1980, although being held under restrictions and without electoral registers.
[2] On November 15, 2019, following a series of popular protests in October 2019, a political agreement between parties with parliamentary representation called for a national referendum on the proposal of writing a new Constitution and on the mechanism to draft it.
[3] A plebiscite held on October 25, 2020, approved drafting a new fundamental charter, as well as choosing by popular vote delegates to a Constitutional Convention which was to fulfill this objective.
[8] The following people were part of the commission: Rafael Eyzaguirre Echeverría (secretary), Sergio Diez Urzúa, Enrique Evans de la Cuadra, Jaime Guzmán Errázuriz, Gustavo Lorca Rojas, Jorge Ovalle Quiroz, Alejandro Silva Bascuñán, Alicia Romo Román, Raúl Gormaz Molina and later on Luz Bulnes Aldunate, Raúl Bertelsen Repetto, Juan de Dios Carmona.
First, the constitutional commission was not representative of the political spectrum of Chile: its members had been handpicked by the Pinochet dictatorship, and opponents of the regime had been deliberately excluded.
[13] Campaigning for the referendum was irregular, with the government calling people to vote positively on the reform, and also using radio and television commercial spots, while the opposition urging people to vote negatively were only able of doing small public demonstrations, without access to television time and limited radio access.
[22] In July 2022, a proposed replacement constitution was submitted for national debate and general referendum, but it was rejected on September 4 despite having had the support of left-leaning President Gabriel Boric.
The group, with lawyer Veronica Undurraga serving as its president, was scheduled to work for three months on 12 institutional bases agreed to by lawmakers, after which the draft would be given to an elected Constitutional Council, whose members would be voted upon on May 7, 2023.