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BIF Briefing, February 2009

www.boliviainfoforum.org.uk

Bolivia Information Forum BriefingFebruary 2009

The Morales government in Bolivia has now been

in office for three years. It took office in January2006, promising to refound the country. It soughtto do this by:

Reversing some of the neo-liberal changes tothe economy introduced during the 1980s and1990s which had failed to result in improve-ments in living standards. In particular thisinvolved entering into new relationships withthe main foreign companies and increasingtheir tax contributions, particularly from gasrevenues.

Introducing new policies to enhance the socialwelfare of the majority of Bolivians who arebelow the poverty line, focusing in particularon children and the elderly.

Enhancing the political rights of the majoritywho are of indigenous descent who have longbeen the victims of exclusion and discrimina-tion.

Following its electoral mandate to overhaul thecountrys political institutions to these ends, theMorales government has presided over a rewrit-

ing of the constitution. This document wasagreed in its final form by a two-thirds majority inCongress in October 2008, and it was put to areferendum of the people on January 25. Theyes option won more than 61% of valid votescast.

Contested process of reform

The process of rewriting the constitution provedto be longer and far more contested than mosthad thought when the Constituent Assembly was

elected in July 2006:

The ruling MAS (Movimiento al Socialismo)

had a majority of seats in the Assembly, butnot the two-thirds majority required to approveits vision for change. The opposition man-aged to hold up progress in the Assembly,forcing it to extend its original twelve-monthtime limit.

The opposition parties refused to ratify thefinal document when it came to a vote in De-cember 2007. Instead they withdrew from the

Assembly, and then challenged the legality ofthe draft text approved by the majority of As-sembly members.

Departmental prefects and civic committeesfrom the opposition-dominated eastern de-partments announced their own scheme forautonomy from the central government.These amounted to quasi-secession. Thegovernment challenged the legality of the so-called statutes of autonomy announced atthe beginning of 2008.

Following violent acts of civil disobedience inthe eastern departments in September 2008and subsequent international mediation,

changes were finally included in the draft textto meet opposition demands. In return, theopposition majority in the Senate agreed thenecessary legislation to hold the January ref-erendum.

Referendum results

While overall the referendum was approved bysubstantially more than the 50% plus one re-quired to validate it, it failed to gain the support ofa majority of voters in the four eastern depart-ments of the country (Santa Cruz, Beni, Tarijaand Pando). At the same time a supplementary

Referendum results and thenew constitution

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BIF Briefing, February 2009

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vote was held in which 80% of voters agreed tomake 5,000 hectares the maximum legal amountof land that an individual may own. Participationin the referendum was high (over 90%) and inter-national observers from the Organisation of

American States (OAS), the European Union(EU) and the Union of South American Nations(UNASUR) confirmed that it was conducted freelyand fairly.

The regional distribution of the yes vote (in de-scending order) was as follows:

Potos 80.07%La Paz 78.12%Oruro 73.68%Cochabamba 64.91%Chuquisaca 51.54%Tarija 43.34%Pando 40.96%

Santa Cruz 34.75%Beni 32.67%

Nationwide 61.43%

[final official figures from the National Electoral Court]

Key points

The new constitution has 411 articles, many ofwhich do not represent major changes from theprevious 1967 constitution. The most important

changes refer to:

Indigenous rights. Indigenous peoples, longexcluded from effective decision-making,have won substantially enhanced politicalrights.

Autonomies. A system of departmentalautonomies will be introduced to cater for thedemands expressed by the eastern depart-ments. These will be complemented by mu-nicipal and indigenous autonomies.

Justice. New provisions are included to pro-vide for traditional forms of justice in thoseareas that are governed by indigenous peo-ples. Judges are to be elected.

State control. The new constitution assumesa greater degree of state control over the useand exploitation of natural resources.

Private property. The constitution gives guar-antees for the sanctity of private property,alongside communal and state property.

Presidential re-election. The new constitution

removes the legal bar to immediate re-election. However, to assuage oppositionfears, Morales has said that if re-electedthis year he will not stand for a further termin 2014.

Plurinational Assembly. The Senate is to be

expanded in terms of its membership witheach department electing four senators, asopposed to three up to now. The originaldraft contemplated abolishing the Senate. Inthe lower house, representatives will beelected both as representatives of local con-stituencies, but also at departmental level.

Land reform. The parallel referendum estab-lished a 5,000 hectare maximum for landhold-ing, as opposed to 10,000 hectares. To meetopposition fears, the government agreed thatthis limit will not be made retroactive and that

those with current legal title to estates of over5,000 hectares will be allowed to keep theirland.

Church and state. There will be a formalseparation of Church and state.

Towards elections

Fresh elections under the new constitution aredue to be held next December. These will be forpresident, vice-president, members of the Cham-

ber of Deputies and senators. Elections for pre-fects and mayors will be held in April 2010. Thereferendum therefore paves the way to cam-paigning for the presidency.

For the MAS, the candidate will be EvoMorales, although it is less clear whetherVice-president Alvaro Garca Linera will standagain.

For the opposition, there is no obvious singlecandidate. Some have sought to put theirnames forward, including former president

Carlos Mesa (2003-05) and former vice-president Vctor Hugo Crdenas (1993-97).

Opposition prefects, notably those of Santa Cruzand Beni, have indicated that they want the gov-ernment to negotiate further on the new constitu-tion, but the government has said that the agreedtext has to be respected as it stands. The gov-ernment now intends to push ahead with detailedlegislation to implement the constitution. Furtherpolitical conflict is therefore likely, not least in de-fining what departmental autonomies are taken tomean.