Chileans favored independents to draft a new constitution

Chileans favored left-leaning independent candidates in electing an assembly that will draft a new constitution, replacing the one imposed in the 1980s during the military dictatorship

SANTIAGO, Chile -- Chileans favored left-leaning independent candidates in electing an assembly that will draft a new constitution, replacing the one imposed in the 1980s during the military dictatorship. In a major blow to the traditional political forces in Chile, weekend voting for the 155-member constitutional assembly gave 48 seats to independent candidates, most of them identified with leftist ideology, according to official results announced Monday. The next biggest group was the governing center-right coalition, with 37 seats, and then the Communist Party with 28. Twenty-five seats went to another leftist coalition, and 17 were reserved for Indigenous people. “It is a disastrous result," Fuad Chaín, president of the center-left Christian Democratic Party, said Monday of the poor showing by Chile's political parties. Chaín was elected to be member of the new assembly.