Bolivia

Consitutional reform expected to pass

Article published on the 2009-01-25 Latest update 2009-01-26 06:58 TU

Morales supporters campaign for a yes vote in La Paz.
(Photo: Reuters)

Voters in Bolivia head to the polls today to decide whether to pass President Evo Morales’ controversial constitutional reforms that pit the country's rich minority against its poorer indigenous majority.

Morales is expected to have his reforms approved, as he received 67 percent approval in a voluntary recall vote last August. But the vote promises to split the country along geographic, ethnic and economic lines, and could inflame tensions that have already caused deadly unrest in the country.

“The main problem is not that he won’t get a majority, but the kind of constitution Bolivia is now going to have will set in stone conflict and disputes,” said consultant and journalist Colin Harding, who specialises in Latin America.

The proposed reforms give greater political power and a greater share of natural gas revenues to Bolivia’s impoverished indigenous majority.

They also introduce a limit on land ownership, which would strip many of the most powerful families of their main source of wealth.

Finally, the new constitution would eliminate the single-term limit for the president, allowing Morales to stand for re-election. He has already said that he would call for early elections in December if his reforms pass.

The reform, Harding says, “is underscoring the nature of the divisions in the country, between the west and the east, between the light skinned and the dark skinned, between the wealthy and the poor.”

“They are reforms which clearly do tackle the rights and privileges acquired in the past by substantial minorities of the population,” he continued. “And they’re not going to give them up without a struggle, as they’ve shown. And I think that is going to continue.”