Latinnews Daily - 02 October 2017

Bolivia: Bolivia’s constitutional court (TCP) has admitted an appeal presented by President Evo Morales’ Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS) party on 18 September against the constitutional limits on presidential re-election which are currently preventing President Morales from running again in 2019 for a fourth consecutive term. Article 168 of the current (2009) constitution, which was passed under the MAS government, allows both the president and vice-president to stand for a single consecutive re-election. First elected in 2005 and then re-elected in 2009, Morales had already been permitted to stand again in October 2014 on the grounds that this was his first re-election under the new constitution. The MAS filed the appeal despite the fact that, in a popular referendum held in February 2016, the electorate voted by 51.30%-48.70% against amending the constitution. The MAS is employing the same argument as that used in other countries such as Costa Rica, Honduras and Nicaragua to remove the constitutional limits on re-election – that it represents an infringement of basic human rights.

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