17
September 2015. About 5,000 people were marching on the streets of La Paz
towards the governmental palace. The people marching were representatives of
CONALCAM – the Council in Support of the Change. CONALCAM is what remains of
the massive association of social movements supporting the Morales government.
The aim of the march: to hand over to the parliament a proposal to change the
country’s constitution in favour of a re-election of president Evo Morales and
his vice president Garcia Linera.
The Bolivian
president has been in power since 2005 and is currently in his third term of
office. His third electoral victory, in late 2014, was possible because the
president and his followers argued that under the new constitution, in place
since 2009, Morales had only run for presidency once.
Now, for
months already, Morales has been telling the Bolivians that “a strong voice
from the social movements” has been asking for the possibility of his renewed
postulation as president in 2020. And yesterday, the government’s supporters
officially handed over the corresponding proposal to change the constitution to
the parliament. Some supporters were even asking for a life-long presidency for
Morales and Linera.
Fortunately,
the final decision will be taken by the Bolivian population. According to the
press, the referendum putting a possible fourth presidency of Morales to the
vote could be held in January 2016. One can only hope that this referendum will
be held according to democratic standards, which seems difficult given that the
government controls all the electoral authorities.
