By Andres Kogan Valderrama
HAVANA TIMES – March has arrived, and once again in Chile, we will have a year of elections, following the end of the failed constitutional process that we had as a country. This process may have weakened us as transformative forces, but it never took away the hope of building a more democratic country that addresses the widespread discontent of the population with the institutions. Although I know that these institutions need significant changes to generate trust and bring them closer to the citizenry.
Hence, the regional and municipal elections to be held on October 27 of this year can be seen as a new opportunity to address certain issues that matter to Chileans. In general, the citizenry maintains an enormous disaffection with political parties and with the various public bodies, many of which have been implicated in corruption scandals. There is a long list of municipalities accused and investigated for defrauding the state.
For this reason, if there is a central issue in this election that must be addressed by all candidates, it is undoubtedly that of Public Integrity, Probity and Transparency, as these should be the pillars of any program seeking to restore the importance of public service, which is currently in doubt.
However, before proposing anything in this regard, we must first point out the current situation in Chile regarding the fight against corruption. According to the Corruption Perceptions Index, there appears to be a certain stagnation according to the latest measurements, indicating that much needs to be done in the country.
That said, it can be stated that Chile is one of the best-ranked countries in this index at the regional
