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Morales Poised to Continue Governing Bolivia
(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Bolivian president Evo Morales is likely to get re-elected later this year, according to a poll by Equipos MORI. 47 per cent of respondents would vote for Morales in the December ballot.
Former Cochabamba mayor Manfred Reyes Villa of the New Republican Force (NFR) is a distant second with 16 per cent, followed by Samuel Doria Medina of the National Unity Front (FUN) with eight per cent. A quarter of respondents remain undecided.
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.
Last month, the United States State Department issued a report accusing Bolivia of not being fully committed to combating illegal-drug trafficking. The Bolivian government expelled the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in late 2008 when it accused its members of engaging in illegal activities.
Morales responded to the State Department’s report saying that the U.S. "doesn’t have the authority or moral standing to question" his government’s ongoing fight even when it lacks American help, adding that, "The struggle against drug trafficking cannot be an instrument of political control and geopolitical control."
Polling Data
Who would you vote for in the presidential election?
|
Evo Morales |
47% |
|
Manfred Reyes Villa |
16% |
|
Samuel Doria Medina |
8% |
|
Other candidates |
4% |
|
Undecided |
25% |
Source: Equipos MORI
Methodology: Interviews with 811 Bolivian adults, conducted Sept. 28 to Sept. 28, 2009. Margin of error is 3.3 per cent.