⁍ Chileans will vote on Sunday on whether they want the country’s Pinochet-era constitution torn up and replaced by a fresh charter drafted by citizens.

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⁍ Opinion polls suggest a new charter will be approved by a significant margin.

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⁍ People with COVID-19 have been told to stay away from voting stations on threat of arrest and prosecution.

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– Chileans are voting today on whether to tear up the country’s 30-year-old constitution and replace it with a new one drafted by citizens, Reuters reports. The current constitution was drafted by Augusto Pinochet’s close adviser Jaime Guzman in 1980, and has only been tweaked by successive governments to reduce military and executive power. Last year, protesters demanded a new constitution be drafted by citizens, and opinion polls suggest a new charter will be approved by a significant margin. All eligible Chileans are automatically registered to vote, but voting is optional. People with COVID-19 have been told to stay away from voting stations on threat of arrest and prosecution. Control points have been set up at least 22 yards from polling place entrances where officials will conduct identity spot checks to ensure people are not on the quarantine list. “The right to vote of an infected subject puts at risk the right to health of thousands of people,” Attorney General Jorge Abbott told regional staff in an email. Soldiers, ubiquitous on Chilean streets since the declaration of a state of emergency during the protests last year and again with the outbreak of COVID-19 in March, will oversee the process inside polling stations while police will guard outside.