The Chilean elected constitutional counselor Aldo Sanhueza, accused of sexual abuse, resigned from his seat in the body that will draft the new magna carta proposal and accused the left of “using” his case to “delegitimize” the new constituent process.
Sanhueza, who was to take office on June 7 in the Constituent Council at the hands of the far-right Republican Party, announced the decision last night through a statement in which he stressed that it was not an “easy decision” to make.
“My resignation is an essential step for the constitutional process to follow its expected course with the possibility of reaching a great agreement and I would not like radical sectors to use me in order to prevent it,” he said, according to the local news portal of Radio U of Chile.
“I appreciate the confidence of the more than 100,000 people who elected me and whom I would have liked to represent by defending the ideas of freedom and progress in Chile,” he added.
Then, he accused the “radical left” of using it as an excuse to “delegitimize the process” and assessed that this type of action will not stop “until its development is hindered.”
On the other hand, he assured that he does not have any “legal or judicial disability” that prevents him from assuming the position “since the accusations are unfounded” and they only seek to damage and disable it.
Finally, he said that this decision was made thinking of those who “hope to put an end to this constitutional process and thus begin to work harder to overcome the serious economic, social and insecurity crisis that we are experiencing.”
Next week the Election Qualifying Tribunal must evaluate Sanhueza’s request and, according to Article 149 of the current Constitution, he cannot be replaced.
Consequently, the Constitutional Council will be made up of 50 councilors and the right will lose the two-thirds that allowed it to veto the observations of the Expert Commission.
The events for which Sanhueza is accused date back to March 2019, when a woman denounced him for touching her genitals during a bus trip to the city of Concepción, in southern Chile.
The accusation was made known three days after the constituent elections of May 7, the date on which Sanhueza decided to leave the extreme right formation founded by the former presidential candidate José Antonio Kast, in favor of maintaining the current magna carta, inherited from the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990).
The Constituent Council will begin its functions on June 7, to then deliver a constitutional text to the citizens on November 7.
Finally, on December 17, a mandatory plebiscite will be held, in which the country will decide whether to approve or reject this new Constitution.
The ruling party, a supporter of the constitutional reform that arose in the heat of the claims of the social outbreak of 2019, obtained 12 of the 50 seats and the extreme right, together with the traditional right of Vamos Chile, dominate the council.
Source: Ambito
