December 23, 2006

Abstract: (Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Public support for Evo Morales fell this month in Bolivia, according to a poll by Apoyo, Opinión y Mercado. 62 per cent of respondents approve of their president's performance, down five points since November.

(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Public support for Evo Morales fell this month in Bolivia, according to a poll by Apoyo, Opinión y Mercado. 62 per cent of respondents approve of their president's performance, down five points since November.

Morales—an indigenous leader—won the December 2005 presidential election as the candidate for the Movement to Socialism (MAS), with 53.72 per cent of the vote. He officially took over as Bolivia's head of state in January.

On Aug. 6, the National Constituent Assembly, tasked with re-writing Bolivia's constitution, held its first session. The assembly can sit for one year, and its proposed body of law must be approved by two-thirds of the 255 lawmakers, and then ratified in a nationwide referendum.

Earlier this month, Morales said he would seek a dialogue with a civic movement in Santa Cruz—one of Bolivia's richest regions—after a series of violent clashes between rival factions. On Dec. 21, Morales expressed satisfaction with his government, saying, "We are being threatened by the right, because we are affecting the interests of certain families, but we are not here to work for those families, but for the interests of the nation."

Polling Data

Do you approve or disapprove of Evo Morales' performance as president?

	Dec. 2006	Nov. 2006	Oct. 2006
Approve	62%	67%	50%
Disapprove	33%	30%	41%
No opinion	5%	3%	9%

Source: Apoyo, Opinión y Mercado
Methodology: Interviews with 1,044 Bolivian adults in La Paz, El Alto, Cochabamba and Santa Cruz, conducted from Dec. 7 to Dec. 14, 2006. Margin of error is 3.1 per cent.