On 5 January, after an 18-hour session and nine voting rounds, Chile’s 155-member constituent convention (CC) elected María Elisa Quinteros as its new president; she will lead its effort to draft a new constitution by July.
Analysis:
The CC was elected last year and has been given 12 months (running to 5 July) to complete a new constitutional draft, which is to be submitted to a referendum at some point in the second half of this year. For the first six months it was led by Elisa Loncón, a Mapuche academic and activist. The election of a new leader at the halfway point had always been expected.
- Choosing a successor to Loncón proved more complicated than anticipated. The choice required a simple majority - 78 votes - but with a fragmented convention and many independents, achieving this threshold took a big effort. A slow, manual voting system did not help.
- One of the initial favourites to win the CC presidency, microbiologist Cristina Dorador, a member of the Frente Amplio left-wing coalition that is loyal to president-elect Gabriel Boric, peaked in the sixth voting round, only six votes short of the 78 required. But as her vote count dwindled in subsequent rounds, she withdrew to break the logjam.
- Quinteros, an epidemiologist and public health expert, achieved the necessary 78 votes on the ninth round. She is a member of an independent block within the CC. Benito Baranda, a member of the Independientes No Neutrales block, said it was important that the CC leadership should be from coalitions other than those supporting the president-elect to maintain a necessary distance between the executive and constituent powers.
Looking Ahead: Quinteros and her vice-president (whose election was still pending at the time of writing) will face a big political challenge this year, since drafting each of the articles of the new constitution will require a two-thirds majority, or 104 votes. While the largest groups in the CC represent the centre, the left, and the independents, to achieve the necessary consensus, she will need to build bridges with conservative groups.