(Angus Reid Global Monitor) – The majority of people in Bolivia will support the re-election of Evo Morales in an upcoming ballot, according to a poll by Ipsos, Apoyo, Opinión y Mercado published in La Razón. 52 per cent of respondents would vote for the incumbent president in the December election, down two points since September.
(Angus Reid Global Monitor) – The majority of people in Bolivia will support the re-election of Evo Morales in an upcoming ballot, according to a poll by Ipsos, Apoyo, Opinión y Mercado published in La Razón. 52 per cent of respondents would vote for the incumbent president in the December election, down two points since September.
Former Cochabamba mayor Manfred Reyes Villa of the New Republican Force (NFR) is a distant second with 21 per cent, followed by Samuel Doria Medina of the National Unity Front (FUN) with 13 per cent, and Potosí mayor René Joaquino with only three per cent.
In 2005, 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 Oct. 31, Morales spoke of strained relations with the United States and said there is willingness to reach a deal and re-establish ties soon, declaring, "The framework of renewed diplomatic relations with the U.S. will occur fundamentally if there is government-to-government cooperation, and if there are embassies that do their diplomatic work and keep out of politics."
Polling Data
Who would you vote for in the presidential election?
|
|
Oct. 2009
|
Sept. 2009
|
|
Evo Morales
|
52%
|
54%
|
|
Manfred Reyes Villa
|
21%
|
20%
|
|
Samuel Doria Medina
|
13%
|
11%
|
|
René Joaquino
|
3%
|
3%
|
|
Alejo Véliz
|
–
|
1%
|
|
Other / Blank ballot
|
11%
|
11%
|
Source: Ipsos, Apoyo, Opinión y Mercado / La Razón
Methodology: Interviews with 2,205 Bolivian adults, conducted Oct. 10 to Oct. 20, 2009. Margin of error is 2.45 per cent.
