A constitutional referendum was held in Chile on July 30, 1989, to approve a package of 54 amendments to the 1980 Constitution.Dieter Nohlen (2005) Elections in the Americas: A data handbook, Volume II, p262 The reforms were negotiated between the military government of General Augusto Pinochet and the opposition Concertación in the months after Pinochet lost the 1988 plebiscite on extending his rule. They repealed the constitution's ban on "totalitarian" parties, limited the president's emergency powers, enlarged the elected part of the Senate, made the constitution easier to amend, and changed the makeup of the National Security Council.
Nearly every political party supported the package. Only the Chilean Socialist Party and the Party of the South campaigned for a "No" vote, while the Communist Party and the Revolutionary Left Movement urged voters to spoil their ballots. The proposals were approved with 91% of valid votes in favor,Nohlen, p268 on a turnout of about 94%. The amendments were promulgated as Law 18,825 on August 17, 1989, ahead of the December 1989 elections that returned Chile to civilian rule. Scholars generally regard the reforms as a compromise that opened the way to the democratic transition while leaving in place a number of "authoritarian enclaves".
Background Under the 1980 Constitution, adopted under Pinochet's rule, a plebiscite was to decide whether the military government's candidate would serve a further eight-year presidential term. Beginning in 1987, the opposition concluded that the regime could not be removed by popular revolt or armed struggle and that it had to be challenged within the constitutional framework the military had created. Opposition parties formed the Concertación por el No to campaign in the 1988 plebiscite, where Pinochet was defeated on October 5, 1988. Under the constitution's timetable, presidential and parliamentary elections were to follow in December 1989. After the vote, Pinochet and the opposition agreed to revise the 1980 Constitution before those elections.
On October 14, 1988, nine days after the "No" victory, the Concertación announced that it would seek a "National Agreement for Democracy" and a constitutional consensus, and on November 30 the party National Renewal presented its own first set of proposals. A series of meetings between the parties and the government followed.
On April 28, 1989, Interior Minister Carlos Cáceres Contreras announced a first draft of reforms in a national radio and television broadcast; the Concertación rejected it on May 2. Talks were briefly suspended and resumed on May 12. On May 31, Pinochet presented the final package of 54 reforms in another national broadcast, and the Concertación announced its approval on June 1 after intensive negotiations. Decree 939 of the Interior Ministry, issued on June 15, formally called the plebiscite for Sunday, July 30.
Because the opposition could accept or reject the government's proposal but not modify it, one scholarly assessment describes the outcome as a trade-off: the military gave up some of the constitution's "protected democracy" provisions but gained greater institutional autonomy.
Proposed reforms The package submitted to voters contained 54 amendments to different chapters of the 1980 Constitution. They covered the foundations of the constitutional order, rights and duties, the presidency, states of emergency, the composition of the National Congress, and the legislative process. The main changes were:
Human rights and political freedoms. Article 5 was amended to require the state to respect and promote human rights guaranteed by the constitution and by international treaties ratified by Chile. Article 8, which declared unlawful any act intended to spread a "totalitarian" conception of society or one based on class struggle, and which was widely understood to exclude Marxist parties such as the Communist Party, was repealed. In its place, Article 19 No. 15 declared unconstitutional any party or organization whose aims or conduct did not respect the basic principles of democracy, sought to establish a totalitarian system, or used or incited violence, and gave the Constitutional Court the power to rule on this (Article 82). The ban on holding leadership posts in both a trade association and a political party was narrowed to senior national and regional posts (Article 23). Presidential powers. The procedure for filling a vacancy in the presidency was changed (Article 29), and the president lost the power to dissolve the Chamber of Deputies once during a term (Article 32). Presidential powers during states of siege and emergency were restricted; under a state of siege the president could no longer, among other things, expel people from the country, restrict entry to or exit from it, suspend the right to information, or censor correspondence (Article 41). Congress. Six regions, namely Valparaíso, Metropolitan, Maule, Biobío, Araucanía and Los Lagos, were each divided into two senatorial districts. This raised the number of directly elected senators from 26 to 38 and, together with the designated senators, the size of the Senate from 35 to 47 (Article 45). Vacancies in elected seats were to be filled by a running mate from the same electoral list, and by-elections were prohibited (Article 47). Lawmaking. The quorum for approving, amending or repealing organic constitutional laws fell from three-fifths to four-sevenths (Article 63). Two-thirds majorities were adjusted in the process for resolving disagreements between the two chambers (Articles 65 and 68). National Security Council. The composition and functioning of the council were modified (Articles 95 and 96), including the addition of a civilian member. Constitutional amendment. Article 118, which required certain amendments to be approved by two-thirds of two successive Congresses (and by plebiscite if the president disagreed), was repealed. The quorum for amending chapters I, III, VII, X, XI and XIV was set at two-thirds and kept at three-fifths for other chapters (Article 116). In practice this raised the threshold for amending chapters III and VII from three-fifths to two-thirds. Transitional term. The president elected in the next election would serve an exceptional four-year term instead of the eight years the constitution had provided.
The military also obtained a provision placing laws concerning the armed forces under an organic constitutional law, which made them harder to amend.
Campaign The Santiago Metro and its Metrobus service set a reduced fare of 30 pesos for the day of the plebiscite.
Party positions Because the reforms had been agreed between the government and the Concertación, almost every party called for a "Yes" vote (Apruebo). Only the Chilean Socialist Party (PSCh) and the Party of the South urged a "No" (Rechazo). The PSCh, which should not be confused with the larger Socialist Party of Chile, was joined on June 18 by two groups without legal recognition from the Electoral Service, the Retirees' Party and the Independent Alessandrist Movement, in a "Broad Front for Rejection" coordinated by Irma Toloza, Juan Antonio Torres and Celso Poblete.
The Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR) issued a public declaration on June 17 calling on supporters to spoil their ballots, and the Communist Party, which was still illegal, later did the same.
+ Campaign slogans (translated)"Yes" campaignGovernment of ChileChile: A Constitution for Democracy and ProgressConcertación54 Reforms, Another Step Toward DemocracyHumanist Party and The GreensYou DecideBroad Party of Socialist Left (PAIS)The PAÍS for the Country (wordplay on país, "country")Democratic Socialist Radical PartyChile Wants a Democratic Constitution"No" campaignChilean Socialist PartyNo sloganParty of the SouthNo slogan
Television advertising
As in 1988, the campaign included television advertising, but not as a daily 30-minute electoral block. On June 20, 1989, the National Television Council published rules under which the government, through the General Secretariat of Government, received 10 minutes a day, divided into fifteen 40-second spots, and legally constituted parties received 20 minutes a day, divided into thirty 40-second spots. Spots had to deal exclusively with the constitutional reform and could not be used to promote presidential or parliamentary candidacies. Airing began on June 30 and ended on July 27, with 45 spots a day. Most advertisements supported the "Yes" option; the exceptions were those of the Chilean Socialist Party and the Party of the South.
Some spots were censored. These included one by the Broad Party of Socialist Left that briefly showed Clodomiro Almeyda, who had been prosecuted under Article 8 of the constitution; one by the Christian Democratic Party, the Radical Party and the Center Alliance Party that used archival statements by Pinochet and footage of the 1988 "No" victory and of Patricio Aylwin; and one by the Party for Democracy that ended with an appearance by Ricardo Lagos.
Opinion polling A survey by the Centro de Estudios Públicos (CEP) conducted between June and July 1989 found that 73.3% of respondents considered it "very important" that an agreement on constitutional reforms had been reached, while 15.7% did not consider it important.
Polling firmDateYesNoUndecidedBlank/spoiledCEPJune 198958.6%8.2%28.2%5.0%
Referendum
The electorate numbered 7,556,613 people. The Electoral Service set up 23,000 polling stations: 11,320 for men, 11,614 for women and 66 mixed.
Results The official results, set out in the judgment of the Election Certification Tribunal, were as follows.
In all, 7,082,079 people voted, a turnout of about 93.7%. The 91.25% "Yes" share is calculated on valid votes (those for "Yes" or "No"); measured against all ballots cast, including 324,283 spoiled and 106,741 blank ballots, the reforms received about 85.7%, the figure most often cited in Chilean sources.
By region The "Yes" vote was above 85% in every region. It was highest in the capital region and in the far north and far south, and lowest in Araucanía.
RegionForAgainstVotes%Votes%ITarapacá147,66092.6711,6817.33IIAntofagasta179,54091.8815,7808.12IIIAtacama90,12389.4110,67010.59IVCoquimbo201,92588.4926,26911.51VValparaíso666,41292.5253,9077.48VIO'Higgins321,78090.3334,4569.67VIIMaule382,57789.1246,72010.88VIIIBiobío774,11189.3292,56410.68IXAraucanía322,12085.2155,88914.79XLos Lagos404,11088.4652,71311.54XIAysén32,47389.693,73310.31XIIMagallanes71,80592.036,2227.97RMMetropolitan2,474,80493.54170,9136.46Total6,069,44091.25581,6158.74
Reactions On the night of July 30, Pinochet addressed the country in a national broadcast, saying that Chileans had given the world a new demonstration of their civic maturity and pledging to respect the constitution, which he noted the people had ratified twice, alluding to the 1980 plebiscite.
Pro-government politicians struck a similar note. Hernán Büchi said the vote reflected an important stage in the consolidation of democratic institutions. Jaime Guzmán of the Independent Democratic Union, a member of the commission that drafted the 1980 Constitution, said he was satisfied that the reforms corrected a flaw that allowed measures adopted under a state of emergency to outlast the emergency itself, but that he would have preferred to keep the requirement of two successive Congresses for constitutional amendments.
Opposition leaders also commented. Patricio Aylwin of the Christian Democrats said it was important for the country to become accustomed to taking part in fundamental decisions. Ricardo Lagos said that without the "No" result in 1988 there would have been no constitutional reforms, and predicted a significant further amendment after the new Congress was elected in December.
Aftermath and assessment