'Chilean liberty will be restored —in 1997’

Press, 12 August 1980, Page 8

'Chilean liberty will be restored —in 1997’

NZPA Santiago, Chile President Augusto Pinochet has said that he is submitting to Chilean voters a new constitution that would guarantee a presidential election in 1997.

Speaking* in a nation-wide radio and television address, the general, said that the plebiscite would be held on September 11, the seventh anniversary of his overthrow of the Marxist President Salvador Allende.

If approved, the constitution would go into effect six months later for an eight-year transition period with General Pinochet, who is 64, remaining as President.

Under the proposed constitution, the Government would propose the President in 1989, and he would be confirmed by a plebiscite, the President said. Members of a two-House Congress would be elected within nine months of .when the President is seated in 1939, and a President would be freely elected eight years later.

“Trees that grow rapidly

are toppled in the first strong wind; the hard wood of the oak, slow in its growth, defies time and protects several generations with its shadow,” said the President, waxing poetic in explaining the slow return to an elected government. He also said: “The Government junta has deemed it necessary to reserve the right to propose the name of the President of the republic for the new period that will begin in 1989.” : ' General Pinochet said that if the proposal is rejected, popular elections . will be called within a year under rules to be worked out later.

Opponents of the regime were angered, by the proposed constitution, the text of which General Pinochet said would be released shortly.

“This is a farce and a joke. It represents the consolidation of the dictatorship,” said Patricio Alwyn, a former senator arid head of the Christian Democrat Party when the military seized power and banned all political activity. The new constitution.

which was revised personally by General Pinochet, was. drafted by a 19-member, military-appointed Council of State headed by a conservative former President, Jorge Alessandri, who is 82.

The new, document had called for a five-year transition period with elections to follow for both President and Congress. The lengthening of the transition period and reservation of the right to name the President in ,1989 represent a triumph for hardliners in the regime, who have opposed a return to civilian rule. General Pinochet said the old constitution was too weak to stand' up to Marxism. A

He also said: “The' new text assures the vanguard in the frontal assault, on "terrorism . . . and provides

authorities sufficient .faculties to control and stop subversion-..

Constitutional guarantees were suspended . duririg the 1973 coup, and the Government has since ruled by decree under state-of-seige and later state-of-emergency declarations.