(Angus Reid Global Monitor) – The popularity of Bolivian president Evo Morales rose last month, according to a poll by Ipsos, Apoyo, Opinión y Mercado published in La Razón. 66 per cent of respondents approve of the president’s performance, up six points since September.
(Angus Reid Global Monitor) – The popularity of Bolivian president Evo Morales rose last month, according to a poll by Ipsos, Apoyo, Opinión y Mercado published in La Razón. 66 per cent of respondents approve of the president’s performance, up six points since September.
In 2005, Morales—an indigenous leader and former coca-leaf farmer—won the presidential election as the candidate for the Movement to Socialism (MAS), with 53.7 per cent of the vote. He was officially sworn in as Bolivia’s first indigenous head of state in January 2006.
Morales’s tenure has been focused on "re-founding" Bolivia through a new constitution. The new document was ratified in January 2009.
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 took place in December. Morales secured a new term in office with 64.22 per cent of the vote.
On Jan. 1, Morales strongly criticized United States president Barack Obama for failing to change what he calls a "patronizing" American policy towards Bolivia, declaring, "When I was informed that Obama had won the elections I said: a black man isn’t going to exclude an Indian, but it turned out to be the opposite. That is why I say that the only thing that has changed in the United States is the colour of the president. I regret that a lot."
Polling Data
Do you approve or disapprove of Evo Morales’s performance as president?
|
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Dec. 2009
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Sept. 2009
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Jul. 2009
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Approve
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66%
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60%
|
57%
|
|
Disapprove
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29%
|
36%
|
39%
|
Source: Ipsos, Apoyo, Opinión y Mercado / La Razón
Methodology: Interviews with 1,021 Bolivian adults in La Paz, El Alto, Cochabamba and Santa Cruz, conducted from Dec. 12 to Dec. 22, 2009. Margin of error is 3.1 per cent.
