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Angus Reid Global Monitor : Polls & Research
Morales Rebounds After Oil Deals in Bolivia
- More Bolivians are voicing support for Evo Morales, according to a poll by Equipos MORI. 63 per cent of respondents approve of their president's performance, up 10 points since September.
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 May 1, Morales nationalized the South American country's oil and gas industry, after issuing a decree that called for foreign energy companies to sign new operating contracts within 180 days, or leave Bolivia.
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.
Late last month, Morales authorized the new operating contracts from several foreign energy companies, including Spain's Repsol YPF, Brasil's Petrobras, Britain's British Gas, France's Total SA and U.S.-based Vintage Petroleum.
On Oct. 28, Morales expressed satisfaction with the new state of affairs, saying, "Bolivia will not be as it was before, a beggar state with many social problems. We will continue in this path of recovering our natural resources, not only the hydrocarbons but also the minerals and the non-metallics, and all non-renewable natural resources that belong to the Bolivian people."
Polling Data
Do you approve or disapprove of Evo Morales' performance as president?
Nov. 2006 | Sept. 2006 | Jul. 2006 | |
Approve | 63% | 53% | 75% |
Disapprove | 34% | 41% | 19% |
Source: Equipos MORI
Methodology: Interviews with 1,000 adult Bolivians in La Paz, El Alto, Cochabamba, Santa Cruz, and Tarija, conducted from Oct. 31 and Nov. 1, 2006. Margin of error is 3 per cent.