[Politics] The deadlines and knots in force in the last month of work of the Constitutional Convention

[FNX Magokiler]

With the work of the last three commissions, the Constitutional Convention began its final stretch of work. There is little more than a month left to deliver the Magna Carta draft and key discussions still need to be resolved for the final design of the text, such as knowing if it will have a preamble or with what quorum it can be reformed if it wins Approval in September. The first thing that will be defined this weekend is the order of the 499 approved articles. The Harmonization Commission will be in charge of voting on the proposals, and the general consensus is that the first rule is that "Chile is a social democratic State of law."

Another relevant point that this commission must decide is the final length of the text: if they maintain the current number, the Chilean Constitution could be one of the longest in the world in terms of the number of regulations. However, there is a widespread notion that by merging standards and using other mechanisms to "clean" the text of repetitions, the number could be reduced even below 400. Also, the full Convention will decide in June whether the draft Magna Carta will have a preamble or not. The proposal of the commission that prepared the introductory text consists of four paragraphs, voted in favor by the majority of the groups -from the Plurinational Coordinator to the RN-, but that does not convince all the members of those groups. The difficulty rises: substantive and transitory issues But the difficulty of the pending discussions will rise with two decisions that Harmonization will have to make during June. Once they jump the fence of the formal corrections of the text, they must go to the background to correct the possible "omissions" or "inconsistencies" that exist. In those cases, for example, they will have to decide if the fact that there is not an explicitly established quorum for constitutional reforms in the future is an omission, and, if they believe so, devise a formula to fill that gap.

 

 

They must also decide what expression to use for the right to indigenous consultation that is approved in the text. One of the endorsed articles states that "the peoples and nations pre-existing the State must be consulted and grant free, prior and informed consent in those matters or matters that affect their rights recognized in this Constitution"; while another says that peoples and nations "have the right to be consulted prior to the adoption of administrative and legislative measures that affect them." "Consent", according to those who seek to adapt the norm, would be a higher standard than consultation, so that it will lead to a political discussion and not just a technical one. Finally, the plenary must define what transitory norms will be necessary for the implementation of the new Constitution, and among the proposals that they have to vote on is the one that establishes the end of the senators in 2026; one that sets the quorum for constitutional reforms at 2/3 until that same year; and others such as the future of water use rights and the deadline for the bill that regulates the Council of Justice. The schedule According to the latest schedule of the Convention, June 2 will be the plenary session for the vote on the first report of the Transitional Standards Commission. That same day, the table's proposal that the preamble be voted on by 2/3 should be voted on.

The following week, which starts on June 6, will be work for Harmonization and Transitory Norms. The latter must deliver its second report -with the new proposals for the regulations rejected in the first- on June 10. In the week that begins on the 13th of that month, Harmonization will continue with its tasks and on Tuesday the 14th there will be another plenary session to vote on the second report on Transitory Norms. A general plenary session is set for June 23, and June 24 would be the first plenary session to vote on the Harmonization proposals. The 28th and 29th would be the last plenary sessions to vote on the proposals of that commission, and on the 30th the scheme would be repeated, until complete dispatch. Finally, on July 4 would be the public ceremony for the delivery of the proposal for the new Constitution.

 

https://www.emol.com/noticias/Nacional/2022/05/29/1062425/nudos-fechas-convencion-ultimo-mes.html