Government supporters ask for re-election of Morales

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.