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President Morales Drops to 68% in Bolivia
- Public support for Evo Morales fell for the second straight month in Bolivia, according to a poll by Apoyo, Opinión y Mercado. 68 per cent of respondents approve of their president's performance, down seven points since June.
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 Jul. 2, Bolivian voters elected 210 representatives to the National Constituent Assembly. Local governments appointed 45 more to complete the group that will re-write the country's constitution. MAS members secured 135 of the 210 elected seats, followed by We Can (Podemos) with 60 legislators.
On Aug. 6, the National Constituent Assembly held its first session. Morales expressed his views on the ad-hoc body, saying, "The assembly should have every power, higher than Evo Morales, higher than the National Congress and higher than the judiciary."
On Aug. 8, opposition leaders and Catholic Church representatives criticized Morales' point of view. We Can spokesman José Aruquipa declared: "We do not agree with this, because the law does not allow it, and only dictators attempt to shut down Congress."
The National Constituent 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.
Polling Data
Do you approve or disapprove of Evo Morales' performance as president?
Jul. 2006 | Jun. 2006 | May 2006 | |
Approve | 68% | 75% | 81% |
Disapprove | 24% | 20% | 15% |
No opinion | 8% | 5% | 4% |
Source: Apoyo, Opinión y Mercado
Methodology: Interviews with 1,009 Bolivian adults in La Paz, El Alto, Cochabamba and Santa Cruz, conducted from Jul. 10 to Jul. 17, 2006. Margin of error is 3.1 per cent.