Published: December 7 2009
A hat trick of electoral victories has made Evo Morales, Bolivia’s leftist president, one of Latin America’s most popular leaders, with a clear mandate to push ahead with plans to increase state control of the economy, grant greater autonomy to regions and improve the lot of the Andean nation’s indigenous majority.
The former coca farmer union rose to power in 2005 with 54 per cent of the vote, consolidated that majority in 2008 with 67 per cent of the vote in a recall referendum and on Monday took 63 per cent. With votes still to be counted, Mr Morales’ Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) party had won a two-thirds majority in the Senate and was close to securing a majority in the lower house, although this was not assured.
“Effectively there is no national opposition. There’s no leader who can challenge Evo, there’s no political party that can challenge Evo and there’s no base in Congress that can touch him,” said Jim Shultz, head of The Democracy Center, a Bolivian think-tank.
Adolfo Mendoza, the first MAS senator to be elected last night in the department of Cochabamba, where Mr Reyes used to be governor, said the election meant “a new collective consciousness” and had once and for all defeated “an ancient regime”.
“We have constituted a historical bloc, there’s no return,” he told the FT. “This crushing defeat shows that the old party system was corrupt and obsolete. Now the people are the mediators, there’s greater pluralism with the indigenous and social movements being part of the whole thing, and they will act as the observer and apply checks and balances.”
While Mr Morales failed to win over the rebellious south-eastern “media luna” states where much of the Andean nation’s hydrocarbons and agricultural wealth is based, he gained significant ground against his nearest rival, Manfred Reyes Villa.
“We have an enormous responsibility to deepen, accelerate this process of change,” the newly re-elected president told his supporters. “Having more than two thirds in the chambers [of Congress] allows me to accelerate the process.”
Details of Mr Morales’ agenda are still unclear. The president has announced plans for a large-scale industrialisation of key wealth sectors, including cement, paper, dairy, lithium, fertilisers, steel; a continuance of direct subsidy schemes for Bolivia’s poor; and support for greater regional autonomy that many critics say will prove to be almost ungovernable.
So far nine departments and 11 indigenous regions have decided to become autonomous, including Villa Mojocoya in Chuquisaca; Charazani in La Paz; and Pampa Aullagas, Salinas de Garci Mendoza and Curahuara Carangas in Oruro.
“All we really know is that Evo has a huge mandate, that he intends to use it, and that the opposition is absolutely flat on its back,” said Mr Shultz.
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