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ANCHOR:
The first president of Bolivia is given green
light on constitutional referendum. Although
controversial, supporters held a candle light
vigil outside of Congress for the entire
deliberation. The new leftist constitutional
draft draws outcry from Bolivia's right wing
congressmen. Here's more on the story.
STORY:
Bolivia's leftist President Evo Morales held
an overnight vigil with thousands of
supporters outside the Congress in La Paz.
When dawn broke on Morales and supporters
were still in a downtown square.
Officials announced on Monday a national
referendum to approve the controversial
redraft, which envisions a state based on
indigenous values and aims to entrench
leftist economic principles. Lawmakers
continued to hash out adjustments to the new
draft in a twelve hour overnight
congressional session as early morning saw
Morales and supporters dancing outside
Congress. The law was finally approved.
Rightist opponents in Congress have fiercely
opposed the constitution, saying it would
give too much power to Morales and his
Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) party.
Opposition lawmaker Alejandro Conlazi said
the original constitution has been modified,
but not to the extent Morales intended.
[Alejandro Conlazi, Opposition Lawmaker]:
A substantial part of the constitution
supported by the government has been
modified. Now it's imperfect because MAS
officials have made articles that in my
opinion are not good for the country, but the
attempt to have clean slate for hegemonic
power in Bolivia has been controlled.
The presidential term proved one of the
biggest sticking points in talks last week.
The government had argued Morales should be
allowed to run for president twice more,
while the opposition wanted to limit Morales,
who was elected in December 2005, to one more
term in office. The right-wing congressmen
dropped their opposition after Morales agreed
to limit himself to running for one more term
in office, but some lawmakers like Fernando
Messmer still said they would not recognize
the draft.
[Fernando Messmer, Lawmaker]:
For reasons of principal and conviction I
refuse to recognize this voting law taking
into account the circumstances and context in
which is has been developed. In a democracy
it's unthinkable that we have to make
decisions with fences and marches involved.
Fernando Messmer was referring to the massive
march of indigenous supporters organized by
Morales on Monday. Hanging on the decision by
Congress, Morales' supporters like slept in
the streets, reading newspapers and
celebrating.
[Juan Wilka, Indigenous Leader]:
We are waiting to see what will happen. As
long as there's no law we're staying. We're
going to stay as long as we need to get the
referendum and the new constitution.
Since taking office in January 2006, Morales
has implemented a string of reforms to
increase state revenue from the country's
energy and mineral deposits and has began
spreading some of the wealth among the poor.
The new draft would allow Morales to further
tighten state control over natural resources
and envisions greater autonomy from the
central government for the country's nine
provincial governments and indigenous
communities.
Tags : ntd bolivia Evo Morales La Paz politics congress MAS |
