AS/COA Online - Widespread Voiding of Ballots Marks Bolivia's First Judicial Vote

/
Bolivia’s Sunday judicial elections marked a couple of firsts. Not only did Bolivian voters turn out in the country’s first public vote for top judicial posts, but the large-scale voiding of ballots appears to be the first electoral rebuff of President Evo Morales since his 2005 presidential victory. Morales hailed the election and massive turnout as important for democracy and to the validity of the country’s latest Constitution, approved by referendum in 2009. Official results from Sunday’s vote won’t be released until October 29, but polling firm Ipsos Apoyo estimated that over 45 percent of voters voided their ballots while some 20 percent left ballots blank. Some saw the results as a rebuke against Morales, with the opposition saying the election signaled a win for its side. Still, many observers say the vote is the latest indication of Morales’ slumping approval figures, torpedoed by continued protests over his government’s backing of a transoceanic highway through the Isiboro-Sécure Indigenous Territory and National Park (TIPNIS).
Read More

AS/COA Online - Evo Wins Bolivian Vote by a Landslide

/
Updated December 7 - In the months leading up to Bolivia's December 6 election, polls signaled that President Evo Morales would be a shoo-in for reelection. In the end, he pulled in even more votes than predicted. Initial results showed him winning almost 63 percent of the votes—roughly 35 points ahead of his top rival, former Cochabamba Mayor Manfred Reyes Villa. Moreover, the Movement Toward Socialism party won a majority of seats in the lower house and captured a two-thirds supermajority in the Senate. Moreover, five departments and one province voted for autonomy. 11 municipalities voted for indigenous autonomy, allowing them to make use of traditional indigenous political structures. As a Los Tiempos interactive shows, political divisions remain between the country's east and west, with the former overwhelmingly voting for Morales while Manfred Reyes won three easter departments.
Read More

AS/COA Online | New ALBA Trading Currency Dawns at Bolivia Summit

/
Bolivian city Cochabamba played host to leaders from the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of the Americas (ALBA) October 16 and 17. The meeting marked the seventh leaders summit for ALBA, now in its fifth year and with its name modified to swap “Alternative” for “Alliance” in June. At this weekend's meeting, the countries took on the weightier matter of signing a treaty to replace the dollar with a virtual currency—known as the “Sucre”—for commerce between members. Attendees also decided to sanction current member country Honduras in protest of the June 28 overthrow of Manuel Zelaya.
Read More

AS/COA Online - Interview: FIU's Eduardo Gamarra on Bolivian President Evo Morales' "Riskless" Recall Vote

/
“[T]he point is that the president is risking very little and the prefects have much to lose.”
 
In an interview with AS/COA Managing Editor Carin Zissis, Director of Florida International University’s Latin American and Caribbean Center and Bolivia expert Eduardo Gamarra discusses the complex series of referenda taking place in Bolivia. Earlier this summer, four Bolivian departments held votes supporting autonomy; on August 10, in a public referendum, voters will decide whether the president and several governors retain their positions; and a vote on the controversial new constitution is expected within the next year and a half. Gamarra explains what is behind not only the deep political and regional divisions affecting the country, but also the questionable legitimacy of some of the votes and demonstrations. Speaking about Sunday’s election, Gamarra comments that, “The president is basically running a riskless election.”
 
AS/COA: Bolivia is holding a referendum in August 10 in which the voters will decide whether the president, the vice president, and most departmental governors will stay in office. How does this recall vote work and does President Evo Morales face any real possibility of losing office?
 
Gamarra: Perhaps I better start by answering the last part. The president is basically running a riskless election. In fact, it is a referendum that can only work in his favor. Now, having said that, at the same time the governors or the prefects—as a result of the autonomy referendums they’re now known as governors—have more to lose than the president and largely because the way in which the law that convokes the referendum is written. To lose, the president needs the majority of people to vote against him. To lose, the prefects do not need a majority; a simple minority could end their terms. The president would then have the right to name the successor rather than calling for a new election. In the case that the president loses, there’s a need for an immediate call for a new round of elections. It is relatively complicated but the point is that the president is risking very little and the prefects have much to lose.
 
AS/COA: So, just to understand this clearly, the prefects can lose by a minority vote?
Read More

CFR.org | Backgrounder: Bolivia's Nationalization of Oil and Gas

/

On his hundredth day in office, Bolivian President Evo Morales moved to nationalize his nation's oil and gas reserves, ordering the military to occupy Bolivia's gas fields and giving foreign investors a six-month deadline to comply with demands or leave. The May 1 directive set off tensions in the region and beyond, particularly for foreign investors in Brazil, Spain, and Argentina. Morales' nationalization agenda has been described as another chapter in Latin America's turn to the left, and fears are rising that the Bolivian leader has fallen into the fold of Venezuela's Hugo Chávez and Cuba's Fidel Castro. But some experts emphasize there may be more infighting than cohesion overall in the region.

Read the full text.

CFR.org/NYTimes.com | Bolivia’s Nationalization of Oil and Gas

/

On his hundredth day in office, Bolivian President Evo Morales moved to nationalize his nation’s oil and gas reserves, ordering the military to occupy Bolivia’s gas fields and giving foreign investors a six-month deadline to comply with demands or leave. The May 1 directive set off tensions in the region and beyond, particularly for foreign investors in Brazil, Spain, and Argentina. Morales’ nationalization agenda has been described as another chapter in Latin America’s turn to the left, and fears are rising that the Bolivian leader has fallen into the fold of Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez and Cuba’s Fidel Castro. But some experts emphasize there may be more infighting than cohesion overall in the region.

Read the full article at CFR.org.