Chile 1989
Two years after the 1980 Junta-drafted Constitution was adopted, President Augusto Pinochet named a civilian commission in August 1983 to draw up organic laws to effectuate some of its provisions, but this encountered extended opposition. After multiple attempts to draft a law legalizing political parties failed, the Constitutional Court ruled that the first of the transitional articles in the 1980 constitution, designed to protect the Junta's hold on power, was unconstitutional. The Court also compelled the government to enact a law that ensured plebiscites to ratify modifications of the constitution. In addition, it required that the Junta's candidate for the second presidential term be elected through a plebiscite and that a special electoral court be in place. In the face of this, the Junta approved a law legalizing political parties in January 1987. The electoral registries were opened in the following month. In October 1988, a presidential election was held and 54.7% of those voting opposed a second eight-year term for Pinochet as President. Though Pinochet's term technically thus ended on March 10,1989, the 1980 Constitution stipulated that he would remain in office for another year and five months.
Renovación Nacional, the right wing political party, then made public a proposal to reform the 1980 constitution. The opposition, a 17-party "Coalition for Democracy", joined in proposing a Constitutional Convention. In 1989, Pinochet accepted the need for constitutional reform, but said that it must be by consensus and must not result in dismantling the regime. He established a government committee to study the reform proposals advanced by the political parties, but the committee put forward reforms quite different from those proposed by the political parties and negotiations between the parties and the government broke down. However, in May 1989 the parties and the government considered a "minimal constitutional pact" of 54 reforms to the 1980 constitution with which none of the disputants were totally satisfied, but were willing to agree upon nevertheless. In June 1989, Pinochet signed a decree authorizing a referendum on this reform package and on July 30, 1989 it was approved by 85.7% of the 7 million citizens who voted, 93.5% of the electorate.
Result: On December 14, 1989, a new President and Congress were elected under the new constitution. On March 11, 1990, the military dictatorship came to an end.