Bolivian constitutional referendum, 2009

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A constitutional referendum was held in Bolivia on 25 January 2009, postponed from the initially planned dates of 4 May 2008 and then 7 December 2008. [1] [2] [3] [4] Drafted by the Constituent Assembly in 2007, the new constitution was approved in the referendum according to an exit poll by Ipsos Apoyo for La Razón and ATB, a Bolivian television network. [5] Furthermore, it required early elections to be held on 6 December 2009. [6]

Bolivia country in South America

Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia is a landlocked country located in western-central South America. The capital is Sucre while the seat of government and financial center is located in La Paz. The largest city and principal industrial center is Santa Cruz de la Sierra, located on the Llanos Orientales a mostly flat region in the east of Bolivia.

Bolivian Constituent Assembly

The most recent Constituent assembly of Bolivia was the Constituent Assembly of 2006–07, which drafted a new Constitution which was approved in the Constitutional referendum of 2009.

Ipsos global market research company

Ipsos Group S.A. is a global market research and a consulting firm with worldwide headquarters in Paris, France. The company was founded in 1975 by Didier Truchot, Chairman and CEO, and has been publicly traded on the Paris Stock Exchange since July 1, 1999.

Contents

History

Under President Evo Morales, the Constituent Assembly was elected on 2 July 2006. [7] The referendum should originally have taken place on 6 August 2007, [8] but the Assembly's validity was extended until 14 December 2007. [9] The referendum was important for the Afro-Bolivian population and activists like Marfa Inofuentes Pérez, who lobbied for and were successful in obtaining inclusion of articles recognizing Bolivia's black population and providing legal protections for the minority group on par with other ethnic groups. [10] [11] On 9 December 2007, the Assembly approved the draft [12] and on 14 December, the Assembly officially handed the constitution draft over to the National Congress. [13]

President of Bolivia position

The President of Bolivia officially known as the President of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is head of state and head of government of Bolivia. According to the current Constitution, the president is elected by popular vote to a five-year term, renewable once. In 2016, in a referendum the country voted to maintain term limits. Since 2009, if no candidate wins a majority, the top two candidates advance to a runoff election. Prior to 2009, if no candidate won half the popular vote, the president was chosen by a vote in a joint legislative session from among the top two candidates.

Evo Morales Bolivian politician

Juan Evo Morales Ayma, commonly known as Evo Morales, is a Bolivian politician and cocalero activist who has served as President of Bolivia since 2006. Widely regarded as the country's first president to come from the indigenous population, his administration has focused on the implementation of leftist policies, poverty reduction, and combating the influence of the United States and multinational corporations in Bolivia. A socialist, he is the head of the Movement for Socialism (MAS) party.

Afro-Bolivian

Afro-Bolivians are Bolivian people of Sub-Saharan African heritage and therefore the descriptive "Afro-Bolivian" may refer to historical or cultural elements in Bolivia thought to emanate from their community. It can also refer to the combining of African and other cultural elements found in Bolivian society such as religion, music, language, the arts, and class culture. The Afro-Bolivians are recognized as one of the constituent ethnic groups of Bolivia by the country's government, and are ceremonially led by a king who traces his descent back to a line of monarchs that reigned in Africa during the medieval period.

The National Congress adopted the law on 28 February 2008 calling for the referendum on 4 May 2008 even though many opposition members chose to stay away during the vote. [14] A law was also approved and signed by Morales that permitted only Congress to call departmental referendums, thereby barring the departmental referendums on autonomy that had also been called for 4 May. [15]

On 7 March 2008, the National Electoral Court suspended the referendum, along with the opposition's regional referendums, saying that there was not enough time for adequate electoral preparations. [4] Nonetheless, the government of Santa Cruz Department went ahead and held its autonomy referendum as planned, ignoring the Court's interdiction on all referendums. Beni Department and Pando Department held their referendums on 1 June 2008. [16] [17]

Santa Cruz Department (Bolivia) Autonomous Department in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia

Santa Cruz, with an area of 370,621 km2 (143,098 sq mi), is the largest of the nine constituent departments of Bolivia occupying about one-third (33.74%) of the territory of the country. It is located in the eastern part of the country, sharing borders in the north and east with Brazil and with Paraguay in the south.

Beni Department Department

Beni, sometimes El Beni, is a northeastern department of Bolivia, in the lowlands region of the country. It is the second-largest department in the country, covering 213,564 square kilometers, and it was created by supreme decree on November 18, 1842 during the administration of General José Ballivián. Its capital is Trinidad.

In a decree on 28 August 2008, Morales declared that the referendum would be held on 7 December 2008. [2]

Unitary state state governed as a single unit with a supreme central government

A unitary state is a state governed as a single power in which the central government is ultimately supreme. The central government may create administrative divisions. Such units exercise only the powers that the central government chooses to delegate. Although political power may be delegated through devolution to local governments by statute, the central government may abrogate the acts of devolved governments or curtail their powers. A large majority of the world's states have a unitary system of government.

Hectare metric unit of area

The hectare is an SI accepted metric system unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides, or 10,000 m2, and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. An acre is about 0.405 hectare and one hectare contains about 2.47 acres.

Acre unit of area

The acre is a unit of land area used in the imperial and US customary systems. It is traditionally defined as the area of one chain by one furlong, which is exactly equal to 10 square chains, ​1⁄640 of a square mile, or 43,560 square feet, and approximately 4,047 m2, or about 40% of a hectare. Based upon the International yard and pound agreement of 1959, an acre may be declared as exactly 4,046.8564224 square metres. The acre is a statute measure in the United States and was formerly one in the United Kingdom and almost all countries of the former British Empire, although informal use continues.

In April 2013, the Supreme Court ruled that the first term of President Evo Morales did not count towards constitutional term limits as the constitution of Bolivia had since been amended, thus allowing Evo Morales a third term.

Unrest and agreement

Following unrest in Pando, the government and the opposition held talks which resulted in a compromise reached on 20 October 2008. They agreed to hold the referendum on 25 January 2009 and early elections on 6 December 2009; Morales in turn promised he would not run again in 2014 after his likely reelection in 2009, despite the fact that he would be allowed to do so under the new constitution. [19]

Results

President Evo Morales enacted the new constitution on 7 February 2009, saying that he had accomplished his mission to "re-found" Bolivia. [20] He spoke in front of thousands of his supporters in the town of El Alto, located near La Paz, claiming that his opponents had "tried ceaselessly" to have him killed. [20] He also said: "Now I want to tell you that they can drag me from the palace. They can kill me. Mission accomplished for the re-founding of the new united Bolivia". [20] One key reform allows Morales to stand for re-election in December 2009. [20]

Bolivian constitutional referendum, 2009 [21] [22]
Yes or noVotesPercentage
Yes check.svg Yes2,064,36061.43%
No 1,296,097 38.57%
Valid votes 3,360,457 95.70%
Invalid or blank votes 151,100 4.30%
Total3,511,557100.00%
Voter turnout 90.26%
Cap on maximum landholdingsVotesPercentage
5,000 hectares1,956,56780.65%
10,000 hectares 469,361 19.35%
Valid votes 2,425,928 69.16%
Invalid or blank votes 1,081,678 30.84%
Total3,507,606100.00%
Voter turnout 90.16%

See also

Related Research Articles

Politics of Bolivia

The politics of Bolivia takes place in a framework of a presidential representative democratic republic, whereby the president is head of state, head of government and head of a diverse multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the two chambers of parliament. Both the Judiciary and the electoral branch are independent of the executive and the legislature. After the 2014 election, 53.1% of the seats in national parliament were held by women, a higher proportion of women than that of the population.

Elections in Bolivia

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Movement Without Fear political party

The Movement Without Fear is a progressive political party in Bolivia. MSM was founded on March 1, 1999.

Constitution of Bolivia

The current Constitution of Bolivia came into effect on February 7, 2009 when it was promulgated by President Evo Morales. after being approved in a referendum with 90.24% participation. The referendum was held on January 25, 2009, and the constitution was approved by 61.43% of voters.

Rubén Costas Governor of Santa Cruz, Bolivia

Rubén Armando Costas Aguilera is a Bolivian politician and the current governor of Bolivia's Santa Cruz department for the Truth and Social Democracy (VERDES) party. In 2013, he founded the Social Democrat Movement party to participate in the 2014 presidential and parliamentary election. Previously he served as prefect on behalf of the Autonomy for Bolivia party. He was one of the nine Bolivian prefects directly elected in the general elections of 2005. This election was the result of several negotiations and large, peaceful public demonstrations in Santa Cruz. The 1967 Bolivian constitution said that prefects can only be appointed by the president, but because of the negotiations and popular desire, the Bolivian Congress approved Law 3015 to formalize the prefect election process.

Social unrest in Cochabamba involved violent clashes between supporters and opponents of Cochabamba Prefect Manfred Reyes Villa in the departmental capital city of Cochabamba, Bolivia, reaching their peak on January 11 and 12, 2007. The policies of the President Evo Morales and the agenda of his Movement towards Socialism (MAS) party in the Constituent Assembly were opposed by politicians in other political parties, notably Reyes Villa. The prefect's opposition to Morales' policies angered the President's supporters, and early in 2007 demonstrations in Cochabamba escalated into violent clashes between Reyes Villa's civic movement and urban and rural social movements who called for his ouster. During the violence, coca farmer Juan Tica Colque and the young student Christian Urresti (17) were killed. Coca farmer Luciano Colque (48) was mortally wounded by blows from civic movement protesters and died of cranial trauma on February 27. Some 200 people were wounded in the clashes.

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Media Luna geographic region of Bolivia

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2008 Santa Cruz autonomy referendum

A referendum to approve the autonomy statute of Santa Cruz Department of Bolivia was held on 4 May 2008. The vote resulted from strains between the Prefecture of Santa Cruz and President Evo Morales. The referendum was declared illegal and unconstitutional by the National Electoral Court. Final results from the referendum showed that 85.6% of participating voters supported autonomy. Abstention rates were 37.9%. Partisans of the Movement for Socialism called for a boycott of the vote, and the Guarayo, Guaraní, Chiquitano, Ayoreo, Yuracaré-Moxeño indigenous peoples were urged to reject holding the vote in their territories.

2008 Bolivian vote of confidence referendum

A vote of confidence in President Evo Morales in the form of a referendum was held in Bolivia on 10 August 2008. The vote was held to determine whether Morales, Vice President Álvaro García Linera, and eight out of nine departmental Prefects should stay in office. Morales received more than 67% support and six of the eight prefects were returned. The prefects of Cochabamba Department and La Paz Department were defeated and had to face re-election.

2008 Bolivian autonomy referendums

Referendums on departmental autonomy statutes were held in four departments of Bolivia—Beni, Pando, Santa Cruz, and Tarija—in May and June 2008. These four departments, known as the Media Luna, voted in favor of autonomy in the June 2006 elections. The National Electoral Court had blocked the referendums, along with the proposed referendum on Morales's new constitution. The referendums were also unconstitutional, as the constitution in force at the time had no provisions for departmental autonomy. Under the Framework Law on Autonomy, passed in 2010, the autonomy statutes must be harmonized with the 2009 Constitution before being enacted.

Domestic policy of the Evo Morales administration

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Constitutional history of Bolivia

Bolivia has had seventeen constitutions, including the present one, since its foundation in 1825.

Presidency of Evo Morales

The Presidency of Evo Morales began on January 22, 2006 when Evo Morales was inaugurated as the 80th President of Bolivia, following his victory in the 2005 general election, where he won 53.7% of the vote, defeating Jorge Quiroga, Samuel Doria Medina, and several other candidates. Morales increased taxation on the hydrocarbon industry to bolster social spending, emphasising projects to combat illiteracy, poverty, racism, and sexism. Vocally criticizing neoliberalism and reducing Bolivia's dependence on the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, his administration oversaw strong economic growth while following a policy termed "Evonomics" which sought to move from a liberal economic approach to a mixed economy. Scaling back U.S. influence in the country, he built relationships with leftist governments in the Latin American pink tide and signed Bolivia into the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas. Attempting to moderate the left-indigenous activist community, his administration also opposed the right-wing autonomist demands of Bolivia's eastern provinces. Winning a recall referendum in 2008, he instituted a new constitution that established Bolivia as a plurinational state and was re-elected in 2009. His second term witnessed the continuation of leftist policies and Bolivia's joining of the Bank of the South and Community of Latin American and Caribbean States; he was again reelected in the 2014 general election.

2016 Bolivian constitutional referendum

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2017 Venezuelan Constituent Assembly election

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References

  1. ↑ "Bolivia sets date for referendum". BBC News. 2008-08-29. Retrieved 2009-01-25.
  2. 1 2 "Bolivia's Morales calls constitutional referendum". International Herald Tribune . Associated Press. 2008-08-29. Retrieved 2009-01-25.
  3. ↑ "Bolivia, opposition agree on referendum, Morales term limit". The Raw Story. Agence France-Presse. 2008-10-20. Archived from the original on November 30, 2008. Retrieved 2009-01-25.
  4. 1 2 "Bolivian court suspends vote on Morales' proposed constitution". International Herald Tribune . Associated Press. 2008-03-08. Retrieved 2009-01-25.
  5. ↑ "Un país dividido aprueba la nueva CPE con el 58,7%". La Razón (in Spanish). La Paz. 2009-01-26. Archived from the original on February 15, 2009. Retrieved 2009-01-26.
  6. ↑ "Bolivien: Einigung über Verfassungsreferendum". Die Presse (in German). Austrian Press Agency. 2008-10-21. Retrieved 2009-01-25.
  7. ↑ Rebick, Judy (2006-09-09). "Peaceful revolution is taking shape". ZNet. Z Communications. Toronto Star . Retrieved 2009-01-26.
  8. ↑ Aguirreand, Mariano & Moreno, Isabel (2007-09-15). "Bolivia: the challenges to state reform". Transnational Institute. Archived from the original on February 15, 2009. Retrieved 2009-01-26.
  9. ↑ "Bolivian Congress Extends Constituent Validity". Prensa Latina. 2007-08-04. Retrieved 2009-01-26.
  10. ↑ Martínez Mita, María (31 October 2008). Impacto del pueblo afroboliviano en el reconocimiento de sus derechos humanos en el proceso Constituyente de Bolivia, 2006–2008 [Impact for the Afro-Bolivian people in the recognition of their human rights in the Constituent process of Bolivia, 2006–2008](PDF) (master's degree). Quito, Ecuador: Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar. pp. 67–69. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 August 2017. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
  11. ↑ Murphy, Annie (27 October 2008). "Afro-Bolivians push for political recognition". San Francisco, California: San Francisco Chronicle . Archived from the original on 4 November 2016. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
  12. ↑ "New Bolivia constitution would allow Morales indefinite re-election". International Herald Tribune . Associated Press. 2007-12-09. Retrieved 2009-01-23.
  13. ↑ "New Bolivian Constitution to Congress". Prensa Latina. 2007-08-04. Retrieved 2009-01-26.
  14. ↑ "Bolivia: A Referendum on Morales' Constitution". Stratfor. 2008-02-29. Retrieved 2009-01-26.
  15. ↑ "Evo Morales promulgates laws to convene referendums and condemns U.S. interference". Granma . 2008-02-29. Archived from the original on February 14, 2009. Retrieved 2009-01-26.
  16. ↑ Carrasco, Gloria (2008-06-02). "Two more states in Bolivia vote for autonomy". CNN . Retrieved 2009-01-26.
  17. ↑ "Bolivian regions 'back autonomy'". BBC News. 2008-06-02. Retrieved 2009-01-26.
  18. ↑ "New Bolivia constitution in force". BBC. 2009-02-07. Retrieved 2016-03-17.
  19. ↑ "Bolivia, opposition agree on referendum, Morales term limit". Google News. Agence France-Presse. 2008-10-20. Archived from the original on 2009-02-15. Retrieved 2009-01-26.
  20. 1 2 3 4 "New Bolivia constitution in force". BBC News. 2009-02-07. Retrieved 2009-02-09.
  21. ↑ "Referéndum Nacional Constituyente 2009". National Electoral Court of Bolivia. 2009-01-28. Retrieved 2009-01-28.
  22. ↑ "Referéndum Nacional Constituyente 2009". National Electoral Court of Bolivia. 2009-01-28. Retrieved 2009-01-28.
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