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Bolivia's Morales wins referendum, eyes re-election
Mon Jan 26, 2009 10:28am EST
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By Terry Wade
LA PAZ (Reuters) - Bolivian President Evo Morales claimed victory as voters approved his leftist constitution, but opposition leaders may try to its implementation as they prepare to challenge him in December elections.
Passed with about 60 percent support in a referendum on Sunday, the constitution aims to give Bolivia's indigenous majority more power, lets Morales run for re-election and hands him tighter control over the economy.
Morales took office three years ago and is popular among the poor and Aymara, Quechua, and Guarani indigenous groups that have suffered centuries of discrimination in South America's poorest country.
An Aymara Indian and former leader of coca-leaf farmers, Morales is Bolivia's first indigenous president and followed his socialist allies, President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and President Rafael Correa of Ecuador, in pushing through new constitutions.
Though the new charter was popular in the Andean highlands, it failed in four of Bolivia's nine provinces as voters in wealthier eastern lowlands rejected it, exit polls said.
"What has been ratified is polarization at the national level," said Carlos Hugo Laruta, a columnist for the La Prensa newspaper. "So both sides must redesign their positions on implementing the constitution and December elections."
Morales has said Bolivia will need to pass about 100 laws to implement most of the reforms laid out in the constitution, including the rules for the election of Supreme Court judges in a popular vote.
To do so, he can work with the opposition, which currently has an edge in the Senate, or risk angering it by bypassing Congress and implementing the charter via decrees.
Opposition leaders in eastern provinces, where a European-descended or mixed-race elite dominates the economy, want more autonomy from the central government.
Between 55 percent and 60 percent of the population is indigenous in the landlocked country of about 9.2 million, where politics run along lines of race and region.
ELECTION
While implementing the charter, Morales will also mount a run for a five-year term in December to carry out his socialist agenda. For now, he is the favorite to win as conservatives lack a strong candidate and are internally divided.
But Morales' popularity could suffer if sales and prices for Bolivia's natural gas exports -- its main source of revenue -- drop on the global economic crisis. Its biggest buyer, Brazil, has already trimmed purchases.
The opposition says it is gaining ground on Morales. The 60 percent "yes" vote on Sunday was lower than the 67 percent Morales nabbed in a recall election last year.
His critics seized on that lower margin of victory to say they would try to block reforms called for in the new constitution or force Morales to make concessions. Continued...
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