“If I voted for it and now I’m no longer for it, am I inconsistent?” asks a young woman in an election commercial about the Chilean referendum scheduled for September 4. The commercial advocates for a no vote in the referendum on the new draft constitution.

The call for a new constitution was born out of the revolt in October 2019, when millions of Chileans protested against the social inequality that plagues the country. A year later, almost 80 percent of the electorate voted to replace the current constitution, which dates back to Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship, with a new one. Chileans elected a Constitutional Convention in May 2021, with left-wing parties and nonparty representatives from social movements winning the majority of seats.