Polls & Research

Bolivians Encourage Active Negotiations

(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - The vast majority of Bolivian adults believe the president and the departmental prefects should keep negotiating, according to a poll by Equipos MORI. 92 per cent of respondents say they support the process, regardless of how difficult and lengthy it becomes.

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. He officially took over as Bolivia’s head of state in January 2006.

Morales’s tenure has been focused on "re-founding" Bolivia through a new constitution. In November 2007, a draft constitution was approved with the support of all pro-government National Constituent Assembly members. Opposition parties boycotted the vote. The proposed draft includes articles that allow for consecutive presidential re-election, the creation of 36 autonomous indigenous communities, and tighter government controls over private media outlets.

This year, the departments of Santa Cruz, Beni, Pando and Tarija—all led by politicians opposed to Morales—have held votes in an effort to increase their autonomy within Bolivia, directly defying articles in the new constitution. In response to the non-binding referendums, Morales enacted a law that scheduled a recall vote on himself, Bolivian vice-president Álvaro García Linera, and the country’s nine governors or "departmental prefects" for Aug. 10. The president was ratified by more than 60 per cent of the participating voters.

On Oct. 21, debates between the president and the departmental prefects finally ended with a revamped version of the constitution and a decision to hold a referendum to ratify the new body of law on Jan. 25, 2009.

The new draft includes a bill of rights, with an entire chapter dedicated to Bolivia’s 36 indigenous nations. It also puts the economy in the hands of the state, limits the size of big land holding, redistributes revenues from gas fields in the eastern lowlands to the country’s poorer areas, and includes a compromise that allows the current president to seek only one additional five-year term.

Addressing supporters, Morales spoke about the decision to hold the referendum, saying, "Now we have made history. This process of change cannot be turned back. (...) Neo-liberalism will never return to Bolivia."

Polling Data

Do you agree o disagree with this statement? - "No matter how difficult and lengthy the process is, the president and the departmental prefects should keep negotiating."

Agree	92%
Disagree	7%

Source: Equipos MORI
Methodology: Interviews with 2,144 Bolivian adults in nine capitals, conducted from Sept. 27 to Oct. 9, 2008. Margin of error is 2.1 per cent.