Constitution of Chile

The current Constitution of Chile was approved by Chilean voters in a controversial plebiscite on September 11, 1980, under the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. It was partially enacted on March 11, 1981 and has been fully effective since March 11, 1990. It was amended considerably on August 17, 1989 (via referendum) and on 22 September 2005 (legislatively), and also in 1991, 1994, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010. It is Chile's eighth constitution, replacing the constitution of 1925. The Chilean people in the 2020 national plebiscite overwhelmingly voted to draft a new constitution. On October 25, 2020, a referendum was held which saw Chilean voters overwhelming approve 78% in favor writing a new constitution by a convention. This draft constitution is to be approved or rejected by another popular vote referendum in 2022. A Constitutional Convention to write the new constitution was elected in May 2021.
Legitimacy.
According to the law professor Camel Cazor Aliste, the Constitution of 1980 has problems of legitimacy stemming from two facts. First, the constitutional commission was not representative of the political spectrum of Chile since its members had been handpicked by the Pinochet dictatorship, and opponents of the regime had been deliberately excluded. Also, the constitution's approval was achieved by the government in a controversial and tightly controlled referendum in 1980. Campaigning for the referendum was irregular, with the government calling people to vote positively on the reform, and also using radio and television commercial spots, while the opposition urging people to vote negatively were only able of doing small public demonstrations, without access to television time and limited radio access. There was no electoral roll for this vote, given that the register had been burned during the dictatorship. There were multiple cases of double voting, with at least 3000 CNI agents doing so.
Despite controversy about its conception, it has been frequently modified (nearly 20 times) since democracy was reinstated, with corresponding Parliamentary approval.
Accusations of constitutional bias in legislative apportionment and election mechanisms.
It has been argued the 1980 Constitution was designed to favor election of right-wing legislative majorities. Several rounds of constitutional amendments have been enacted since 1980 to correct this concern.