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Andean Group - February 2016 (ISSN 1741-4466)

BOLIVIA POLITICS: End in sight for Evo

President Evo Morales and his Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS) government have suffered an unprecedented defeat. With 99.72% of the votes counted from the 21 February referendum on whether to reform the 2009 constitution to allow President Morales to run for a third consecutive presidential term in 2019 (under the current constitution), the ‘no’ vote won by 51.30%-48.70%. While the MAS – which first took office in 2006 under Morales – had already registered setbacks in the March 2015 municipal and regional elections [RA-15-03] and September 2015 referenda on autonomy statutes in five of Bolivia’s nine departments [RA-15-10], this is the first direct vote rejecting President Morales’ mandate. Senior officials had admitted that the ‘yes’ campaign – based on continuing the anti-poverty policies which had ensured Morales’ hitherto popularity – had suffered as a result of official corruption scandals. The electorate were already wary at the prospect of a further term in office for Morales, already Bolivia’s longest serving president. However, a recent influence-trafficking scandal – the first to directly implicate the president - along with a deadly fire in El Alto city, days before the vote, linked to efforts to destroy evidence of corruption committed by a former MAS mayor, appear to have served as the clincher.

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