Chileans will go to the polls on Sunday to vote on whether they want to swap a constitution written during the Pinochet rule with a new document written by a specially elected citizens' body.

In Santiago cafes, on public transport, and in a series of rallies by the "Approve" and "Reject" camps. Opinion polls suggest a resounding win for the "Approve" campaign for a new magna carta, with around two thirds of the vote.

On Sunday, voters will choose whether to approve or reject the drafting of a new constitution. They will also be asked if a fresh text - to be voted on in a second referendum - should be drafted by a constitutional convention of specially elected citizens or a mixed convention that includes lawmakers.

A new constitution was a key demand of demonstrators engaged in sometimes violent mass social protests that broke out in October last year over inequality and elitism. A cross-party referendum deal emerged from the protests in December.

Those opposed to a new constitution argue it will be a "leap into the void" to change a document that has helped make Chile one of the region's most stable free market economies.

Those in favor of replacing the existing text say it has given too much privilege to private interests, and segments access to health, education and pensions by income.

Alejandro Werner, the Western Hemisphere director for the International Monetary Fund, said on Thursday the process could herald "a new era for Chile" if the country could maintain the economic growth which has made it a regional darling, while promoting a fiscally responsible social inclusion agenda.

Cristobal Bellolio, a political commentator who favors a new text, said it would ensure the "nation's fingerprints," rather than those of a small elite, were on its rulebook.

The concern, he added, was that some might expect a new draft to turn Chile into a benevolent welfare state overnight.

"I get the feeling there are many people thinking of the constitution as a government program," he said.

Chileans famously voted to end the 17-year dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet in a 1988 plebiscite.

The current constitution was drafted by Pinochet's close adviser Jaime Guzman in 1980 and has been tweaked by successive governments to reduce military and executive power.

A recent spike in violent protests and nervousness about large public gatherings amid the coronavirus could dampen turnout. All Chileans are automatically registered to vote, but participation is voluntary.

Stringent security and sanitary measures have been rolled out in 2,715 polling stations across the nation of 18 million.

Victor Perez, Chile's interior minister, said people should vote, safe in the knowledge their health was protected.

"This plebiscite is the way for Chileans to resolve our differences, cement our ties, determine our democratic path, and above all condemn violence," he said.

The Mapuche indigenous people

As millions of Chileans have rallied over the last year against the government and for greater equality, the flag of the Mapuche indigenous people has often fluttered overhead.

The group makes up 7 percent of the 18 million population but is far poorer on the whole, and its people are demanding greater autonomy, a recognition of their culture, and the restitution of ancestral lands they consider to have been stolen.

The government says Mapuche-related violence has led to hundreds of firebomb attacks among several thousand acts of violence in the last decade.

Should voters choose to change the constitution, the Mapuche, Aymara, and Rapa Nui peoples, as well as several other tribes, are hoping for formal recognition and perhaps even a role in writing a new Magna Carta.

The only way to achieve the dream of a "Mapuche Nation," say these dissenting voices, is to press on with a campaign of sabotage and violence that has already helped them recover some of the territories they claim as their birthright.

"I value (the vote) as a democratic act that hasn't happened before with respect to what type of society we want to build, but I have doubts," Mapuche leader Juan Pichun told AFP about the referendum.

"Of course they're going to recognize our language and culture but the territory will never enter (into the discussion) and the big problem is the territory."

Pichun is a Lonko, or indigenous leader, in the Temulemu community in Traigen, southern Chile.

His community and two others signed an agreement in 2011 to recover more than 6,000 acres from the Mininco forestry company, ending a 15-year struggle marked by a violent eviction in 1998.

Lawyer Salvador Millaleo, who specializes in indigenous affairs, is among those Chileans who see a "pretty clear alignment" between the hopes of the Mapuche people and the wish for a new constitution.

"Being outside the constitutional process is a rather limited position. Most indigenous organizations have folded" and joined the process, said Millaleo, also a professor at the University of Chile.

What indigenous people hope for "is not to build a different state, but to have another form of coexistence where there is no domination by one part of Chile but equal treatment," he added.

However, even if Chileans vote on Sunday to change the constitution, there's no certainty that indigenous people will find a seat reserved for them at the re-writing table.

(With input from agencies)