On December 5 last year, the Supreme Electoral Court of the Plurinational State of Bolivia allowed the current President Evo Morales and Vice President Álvaro García Linera to run for the fourth time in the first round of elections scheduled for January 27 of 2019. Thus, the ruling party “Movement towards Socialism” (Spanish – Movimiento al Socialismo, MAS) bypasses the Political Constitution of Bolivia, adopted in 2009, for the second time. According to the main legislative document of the country, a candidate can be elected to the position of president no more than two times. Each presidential term is limited to a five-year period.
Leading the country since 2006, Evo Morales ends his third presidential term at the end of this year. Due to the adoption of the new Political Constitution in 2009 during the first term of Morales, the re-election rule was applied only from the second term, and the first four years were not “counted”. That is, the charismatic leader from the “left” camp succeeded in November of 2009 to be re-elected for the first presidential term, and in November of 2014 – to participate in the presidential race again.
Other candidates, according to the latest public opinion polls, in the aggregate will not be able to sum up 15%: former head of state Jaime Paz Zamora (1989–1993), former vice president Victor Hugo Cárdenas during the government of Sánchez de Lozada (1993–1997) and experienced politician and the current governor of the department of Santa Cruz – Rubén Costas.
According to the current president, he would prefer to move away from power, return to his home region and engage in the harvest of coca, but “it is not easy to refuse when the people put forward you”. Popular call makes him run for another term contrary to the Constitution of the country. Whether someone will be able to challenge the leadership of Morales and whether the opposition will be able to raise mass social protests again will be shown very soon. Nevertheless, it is quite obvious that the year 2019 will not be an easy test for Bolivian democracy.