Evo Morales finds a way to run for re-election

IN FEBRUARY 2016 Bolivia’s left-wing president, Evo Morales, asked voters through a referendum whether he should be allowed to run for a fourth term in office in 2019. They said no. But on November 28th this year the country’s constitutional court gave him what the voters would not, ruling that a clause in the constitution limiting presidents (and other directly elected officials) to two terms can be ignored. (He had argued successfully that his first term, under an earlier constitution, didn’t count.)

Mr Morales, who has been president since 2006, solemnly declared that the decision “guarantees democratic continuity”, forgetting that too much continuity subverts democracy. The term limit was part of a constitution adopted in 2009 at Mr Morales’s behest. As Bolivia’s first president of indigenous origin, he wanted to re-found the country as a “plurinational” state and expand the role of indigenous groups and civil-society organisations. An elected constituent...Continue reading

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