I cover recent polls every Wednesday. If you want to be added to the newsletter distribution list, please enter your email at https://boz.substack.com/ or email me at boz@substack.com and I will add you.
Two items today:
Chile - Citizens want non-partisan constitutional assembly
Uruguay - President Lacalle Pou maintains 60% approval rating
Also, as a reminder, I am among the analysts participating in the Latin America Risk Symposium tomorrow (12 November). It’s a three hour webinar over Zoom discussing risks and opportunities in the region in 2021. There is a $95 fee to attend. If you are interested, please click here to sign up.
Chile - Citizens want non-partisan constitutional assembly
Above: The Espacio Publico presentation of the poll results shows a majority of citizens do not want partisan representatives to the constitutional assembly.
A poll from Ipsos and Espacio Publico suggests significant interest in the upcoming constitutional assembly. Of the respondents, 77% of people say they plan to vote in the April elections. However, keep in mind that voter turnout in the October referendum was nowhere near that high.
64% of citizens want representatives that are not members of a specific political party.
A majority of citizens also listed “expert in constitutional issues” as one of the top qualities that they are looking for in representatives to the assembly. The results of the list of qualities people are looking for suggests people are eager to vote for representatives with expertise in specific issues as well as civil society leaders, but want the current political class to stay away from the reform effort.
40% of people don’t care about the ideology of the constituents and the rest of voters split nearly evenly with one-third wanting rightist, centrist or leftist representatives.
When asked what issues should be included in the new constitution, public health and pension reform received the highest levels of responses.
64% want a unicameral legislature and only 16% want to keep the current structure with a Senate and lower house.
47% want to convert to a semi-presidential system with the president and Congress sharing power. 30% want to keep the current presidential system. Only 9% want a system in which the legislature has more power than the executive.
Uruguay - President Lacalle Pou maintains 60% approval rating
A poll from Opcion Consultores shows President Luis Lacalle Pou with a 60% approval rating and only 14% of citizens disapproving of his work. Those numbers are relatively steady since May.
Most analysts agree that the president of Uruguay’s support comes from what citizens perceive to be his very positive handling of the pandemic. The country has among the lowest rates of cases in the hemisphere.
Nearly a third of the people who voted for Daniel Martínez in the last election give Lacalle a good or very good rating.
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