SANTIAGO DE CHILE, May 7th. — Today at 08:00 local time, polling stations began to open in Chile to elect members of the Constitutional Council responsible for drafting the country’s constitution.

The Electoral Service (Servel) ordered the establishment of 2,932 centers throughout the territory, containing 38,663 polling stations.

Due to the time difference with the rest of the country in the southern region of Magallanes, the event started an hour early.

Just over 15 million Chileans were called to the polls at the event, where attendance is mandatory, although there is very little enthusiasm among citizens who are unaware of a significant proportion of the 350 candidates proposed on five lists.

In the Capital Region, for example, each ballot contains 30 names, but only five of them will be members of the Council.

One of the criticisms of the process, the details of which were decided by political parties with parliamentary representation, is that it did little to affect indigenous communities, which make up more than 12 percent of the population.

There are only two indigenous candidates, and the conditions for election are tougher than the rest of the candidates, as they must receive at least 195,000 votes each, i.e. 1.5 of the total votes at the national level.

Servel will begin disclosing results after polls close, scheduled for 6:00 pm, if there are no people waiting to vote at that time.

To mobilize citizens, it was decided that the metropolitan metro, railways and thousands of public transport units in the hinterland would operate all day free of charge.

Source: Juventud Rebelde