Chilean Authorities Facilitate Voting in Quarantine Zones in Plebiscite in Chile

Santiago de Chile: With a view to the constitutional plebiscite on October 25 in Chile, people residing in territories quarantined by Covid-19 will be able to go to vote that day without having to request authorization, Prensa Latina publishes.

In the midst of the health crisis that has strongly affected Chile and that still keeps many communes (municipalities) under strict confinement, the possibility of being able to vote worried many people, which was cleared with this measure.

As explained by the Undersecretary for Crime Prevention, Katherine Martorell, “to facilitate voting, during polling hours people with only their identity card will be able to move to vote?.

The Interior Ministry official clarified that this provision does not mean that the communes are no longer in quarantine, but that they will have this special permit, so that citizens can go to vote, and do so with complete peace of mind.

He said that “the objective is to achieve greater security and participation that day?, although he warned that this authorization does not imply that other activities can be carried out in those territories, for which people will have to obtain the corresponding permits as is currently the case.

However, regarding a possible suffrage of active Covid-19 patients, the undersecretary assured that control measures will be established so that people that can infect others do not go to the polling places that day.

If that happens, she added, all health measures will be adopted in the polling stations to proceed with immediate disinfection in order to guarantee the health safety of the people who attend.

More than 14 million 700 people are summoned for the historic plebiscite, and according to opinion studies, due to the significance of this event that will decide whether Chile is endowed with a new Constitution, cause there is a great interest among the population to participate in the suffrage.

It is even proposed that it could be the election with the highest attendance since the 1988 plebiscite, which decided the departure of Dictator Augusto Pinochet from power, and that it will reach close to 70 percent participation, at least 15 percent more than a presidential one.