(Angus Reid Global Monitor) – Most people in Bolivia would re-elect president Evo Morales, according to a poll by Ipsos, Apoyo, Opinión y Mercado published in La Razón. 54 per cent of respondents would vote for Morales in this year’s presidential election.
(Angus Reid Global Monitor) – Most people in Bolivia would re-elect president Evo Morales, according to a poll by Ipsos, Apoyo, Opinión y Mercado published in La Razón. 54 per cent of respondents would vote for Morales in this year’s presidential election.
Former Cochabamba mayor Manfred Reyes Villa of the New Republican Force (NFR) is a distant second with 20 per cent, followed by Samuel Doria Medina of the National Unity Front (FUN) with 11 per cent, Potosí mayor René Joaquino of Wide Front (FA) with three per cent, and union leader Alejo Véliz with only one per cent.
In 2005, Evo Morales—an indigenous leader and former coca-leaf farmer—won the December 2005 presidential election as the candidate for the Movement to Socialism (MAS), with 53.7 per cent of the vote. The first indigenous leader to become president of Bolivia was officially sworn in January 2006.
Morales’s tenure has been focused on "re-founding" Bolivia through a new constitution. The new document was ratified last January.
The revamped constitution includes a bill of rights and an entire chapter dedicated to Bolivia’s 36 indigenous nations. It also put the economy in the hands of the state, limited landholdings, redistributed revenues from gas fields in the eastern lowlands to the country’s poorer areas, and included a compromise that will allow the current president to seek only one additional five-year term.
Under the terms of the new body of law, a general election has been scheduled for Dec. 6. Morales is seeking re-election.
On Sept. 14, Morales said that Bolivia welcomes foreign companies that want to work in the country as "partners in business" rather than "bosses," adding, "We need partners, companies that respect the Bolivian rules. Companies that come to invest are welcome, but not to do politics."
Polling Data
Who would you vote for in the presidential election?
|
Evo Morales |
54% |
|
Manfred Reyes Villa |
20% |
|
Samuel Doria Medina |
11% |
|
René Joaquino |
3% |
|
Alejo Véliz |
1% |
|
Other / Blank ballot |
11% |
Source: Ipsos, Apoyo, Opinión y Mercado / La Razón
Methodology: Interviews with 1,608 Bolivian adults, conducted Sept. 2 to Sept. 20, 2009. Margin of error is 2.45 per cent.
