海角大神

In a country where demonstrations often end with masked teens hurling steel bars or riot cops spraying down neighborhoods with tear gas, a protest during yesterday鈥檚 presidential election was notable for its silence.

In elections that sent former President Michelle Bachelet and former labor minister Evelyn Matthei to a runoff, about 8 percent of voters quietly wrote 鈥淎C鈥� on their paper ballot, adding their voices to a nationwide call for a constitutional assembly to replace the country鈥檚 dictatorship-era political system.

How the Constitution might be changed proved a hot topic during the election campaign. Supporters of a constitutional congress, for which there is no provision in Chilean law, say their campaign succeeded even if it did not persuade many to spoil their ballots.

鈥淲e got this onto the table for discussion,鈥� says Maritza Canobra, who worked on the campaign. 鈥淲e got the support of seven parties and some of the campaigns.... No one has ever called for direct action like this before.鈥�

The non-binding demonstration of support for a constitutional assembly could add pressure on the next president to allow a broader public role in forging promised constitutional reforms. But there are those on both the right and the left of the political spectrum who are wary of populism and of hasty change.

The AC (for Asamblea Constituyente) campaign was one of the few surprises left in an election whose results had largely been forecast for months. Ms. Bachelet won 47 percent of the vote, missing the absolute majority she needed to avoid a runoff. She is apparently comfortably placed to beat her conservative rival Evelyn Mattei, who won 25 percent, in a runoff election on Dec. 15.

During the campaign, Bachelet promised a 鈥渘ew constitution鈥� but said she would create it using the existing institutional system. Unlike the United States, the Chilean charter has no mechanism for calling a constitutional convention.

The main text of the current Constitution was imposed by Gen. Augusto Pinochet in a plebiscite dominated by the military dictatorship in 1980. The document has been changed several times, with President Ricardo Lagos 鈥� a left-leaning post-dictatorship president 鈥� so happy with the changes that he replaced Pinochet鈥檚 signature on the document with his own. But Chileans remain dissatisfied with the government structure.

But even some who support constitutional change didn鈥檛 join the AC movement. One skeptic is Jorge Caravantes, who says the country needs a new legislative system and more rights for people, rather than corporations. But he isn鈥檛 convinced that a constitutional assembly is the way to go.聽

An assembly will invite 鈥渁 populist system like Venezuela,鈥� he says. 鈥淭hat would be a worst case, and I don鈥檛 want a worst case.鈥�

Robert Funk, a political scientist at The University of Chile, agrees.

鈥淚t shares characteristics with two things I don't like: populism and revolutions,鈥� he says. 鈥淭he argument is, the ends justify the means. We need a new constitution, and since current institutions don't allow it, you go outside the institutions. That's revolutionary.鈥�

Mr. Funk warns that such a breakdown in institutions could soon encourage powerful political figures to ignore the Constitution in order to impose their policy.

Funk says Bachelet鈥檚 platform offers a better, if cautious, route to reform. She wants to change the electoral rules that overrepresent conservatives. Elect a new legislature. And years down the road, make constitutional changes through the process outlined in the 1980 Constitution.

鈥淭he argument is that that is too slow,鈥� Funk says. And protestors, already distrustful of Bachelet, may have little patience for such measures. 鈥淚f [the new government] doesn't show results in six months they'll have students on the streets,鈥� he says.

And it鈥檚 already started. During the election, 20 students briefly took over Bachelet鈥檚 campaign headquarters to demand constitutional changes.