Chile 2022 Draft Constitution

CHAPTER IV. DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION

Article 151

1. In Chile, democracy is exercised in a direct, participatory, community and representative manner.
2. It is the duty of the State to promote and guarantee the adoption of measures for the effective participation of the whole of society in the political process and the full exercise of democracy.
3. Organized political activity contributes to the expression of the popular will and its functioning will respect the principles of autonomy, probity, financial transparency and internal democracy.

Democratic Participation and Representation

Article152

1. Citizens have the right to participate in an incident or binding manner in matters of public interest. It is the duty of the State to give adequate publicity to the mechanisms of democracy, tending to favor a broad deliberation of the people, in accordance with this Constitution and the laws.
2. The public authorities shall facilitate the participation of the people in the political, economic, cultural and social life of the country. It will be the duty of each organ of the State to have the mechanisms to promote and ensure the participation and deliberation of citizens in the management of public affairs, including digital media.
3. The law will regulate the use of digital tools in the implementation of the participation mechanisms established in this Constitution and that are different from suffrage, seeking that their use promotes the highest possible participation in these processes, as well as the broadest information, transparency, security and 54 accessibility of the process for all people without distinction.

Article 153

1. The State shall guarantee to all citizens, without discrimination of any kind, the full exercise of a participatory democracy, through mechanisms of direct democracy.
2. It will be up to the State, in its different spheres and functions, to guarantee the democratic participation and political impact of all people, especially that of historically excluded groups with special protection.
3. The State shall guarantee the inclusion of these groups in public policies and in the process of forming laws, through mechanisms of popular participation and political deliberation, ensuring affirmative measures that enable their effective participation.
4. The law shall establish the affirmative measures necessary to guarantee the participation and political representation of persons with disabilities.

Article 154

1. It is the duty of the State to guarantee environmental democracy. The right to informed participation in environmental matters is recognized. The mechanisms for participation shall be determined by statute.
2. All persons have the right to access environmental information held or in the custody of the State. Individuals must submit environmental information related to their activity, in the terms established by law.

Article 155

The regional statute will consider mechanisms of direct or semi-direct democracy that ensure the incident or binding participation of the population, as appropriate. In the same way, it will consider, at least, the implementation of popular initiatives of local norms at the regional and municipal level, of a binding nature, as well as incident citizen consultations. The budgetary planning of the different territorial entities will always incorporate elements of incident participation of the population.

Article 156

Matters within the jurisdiction of regional and local governments may be submitted to a referendum in accordance with the provisions of the law and the respective regional statute. A statute shall indicate the minimum requirements for requesting or convening them, the time at which they may be carried out, the voting and counting mechanisms, and the cases and conditions in which their results will be binding.

Article 157

1. A group of persons entitled to vote, equivalent to three per cent of the last electoral roll, may submit a popular bill for legislative processing.
2. There will be a period of one hundred and eighty days from its registration with the Electoral Service so that the proposal is known by the citizens and can meet the required sponsorships. In case of gathering the required support, the Electoral Service will send the proposal to Congress, so that it can begin to the law-forming process. Popular bills will enter the legislative agenda with the urgency determined by statute. The Legislative Branch will report every six months on the progress of the processing of these initiatives.
3. The popular initiative of law may not refer to taxes, to the budgetary administration of the State or limit fundamental rights.

Article 158

1. A group of persons entitled to vote, equivalent to five percent of the last electoral roll, may present an initiative for the total or partial repeal of one or more laws enacted under the validity of this Constitution to be voted by national referendum.
2. Initiatives on matters related to taxes or budgetary administration of the State will not be admissible.

Article 159

The Congress of Deputies, the Chamber of the Regions and the representative bodies at the regional and communal level will hold public hearings in the opportunities and forms that the law provides, in which individuals and civil society make known proposals and arguments. Suffrage and electoral system

Suffrage and electoral system

Article 160

1. Suffrage is universal, egalitarian, free, direct, personal and secret. It is mandatory for those who have reached the age of eighteen and volunteer for people aged sixteen and seventeen and for Chileans living abroad. Its exercise constitutes a civic right and duty.
2. No authority or body may prevent the exercise of this right and must in turn provide all the necessary means so that the persons authorized to vote can exercise it.
3. The protection of public security during popular votes shall correspond to the institutions indicated by statute.
4. Chileans abroad will be able to vote in plebiscites and national consultations, presidential elections and elections of deputies. For this purpose, a special overseas district will be constituted.
5. Foreigners who have been living in Chile for at least five years may exercise this right in the cases and in the ways determined by the Constitution and the law.
6. The law shall establish the conditions for ensuring the exercise of this right.

Article 161

1. For popular elections, the law shall create an electoral system in accordance with the principles of substantive equality, parity, gender alternation and the others contemplated in this Constitution and the laws. This system should ensure that collegiate bodies have an equal composition and promote parity in candidacies for single-person positions. It will also ensure that electoral lists are always headed by a woman.
2. There will be a public electoral register to which those who meet the requirements established by this Constitution will be incorporated, by the sole ministry of the law. The law shall determine its organization and functioning.

Article 162

1. In the collegiate bodies of popular representation at the national, regional and communal levels, seats reserved for indigenous peoples and nations are established when appropriate and in proportion to their population within the respective electoral territory. Its requirements, form of application, number and updating mechanisms will be determined by statute.
2. Only those who belong to these peoples and nations and who are part of a special register called the Indigenous Electoral Registry may vote for these seats. Such a register shall be drawn up and administered by the Electoral Service on the basis of the archives kept by State bodies, of those held by indigenous peoples and nations on their members and of the applications of citizens and citizens who self- identify as such, in the terms indicated by statute.
3. A register of the Chilean Afro-descendant tribal people shall be created under the same rules as this article.

Article 163

1. Legally recognized political organizations will implement gender parity in their leadership spaces, ensuring substantive equality in their organizational and electoral dimensions and promoting women’s full political participation. In turn, they must allocate electoral financing proportional to the number of these candidacies.
2. The State and political organizations should take the necessary measures to eradicate gender-based violence in order to ensure that all people fully exercise their political rights.
3. The law will arbitrate the means to encourage the participation of people of sexual and gender diversities and dissidents in electoral processes.

Article 164

1. An autonomous body, with legal personality and its own assets, called the Electoral Service, exercises the administration, supervision and supervision of electoral and plebiscitary processes; compliance with the rules on transparency, limit and control of electoral expenditure; the rules on political organizations; of the norms relating to mechanisms of direct democracy and citizen participation, as well as the other functions indicated by the Constitution and the law.
2. The senior management of the Electoral Service corresponds to a board of directors that will exercise exclusively the powers entrusted to it by the Constitution and the laws.
3. This council is composed of five counselors appointed by the President or the President of the Republic, with the agreement of the Congress of Deputies and the Chamber of the Regions, in joint session and by the majority of its members in exercise. They will last eight years in their positions, they cannot be re-elected and they will be renewed for partialities every four years.
4. Counselors may only be removed by the Supreme Court at the request of the President of the Republic, of the absolute majority of the members in office of the Congress of Deputies or of the Chamber of the Regions, for serious infringement of the Constitution or the laws, supervening legal incapacity, bad behavior or manifest negligence in the exercise of their functions. The Court shall hear the matter in plenary session specially convened for that purpose and in order to decide on the removal it shall gather the concurring vote of the majority of its members.
5. With regard to participatory democracy and the mechanisms enshrined in this Constitution, it is the function of the Electoral Service to promote information, education and citizen or electoral participation in relation to such processes, in collaboration with other State agencies and civil society. It must also ensure the implementation and proper execution of these mechanisms.