Bolivian President Evo Morales vowed on Thursday to call snap elections if he loses a proposed referendum, putting his office and that of the country's nine governors on the line in a bid to settle a constitutional reform crisis.
"If they revoke my mandate, we will call for snap general elections at once," Morales said in an interview with Telesur television.
Morales said he was about to send to Congress draft legislation on the plebiscite he first proposed on Wednesday to the country's governors, six of whom last month called their provinces on strike to protest his proposed constitutional reforms.
PHOTO: EPA
Morales, a leftist, populist president along the lines of his close ally Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, is after social reforms including greater federal control of the country's revenues to redistribute wealth from the rich lowland provinces to their poorer highland neighbors.
The six governors opposed to Morales are from Bolivia's wealthiest regions and balk at the idea of having the federal government reach into their pockets.
A Constituent Assembly, packed with Morales supporters, recently approved the framework of a new Constitution -- which would also broaden Morales' powers -- that the opposition calls illegal since it was voted by simple and not by two-thirds majority.
Clashes between supporters and opponents of Morales have often been marked by violence.
Earlier this month, three anti-government protesters were killed in the city of Sucre.
In his interview, Morales said the ongoing "conspiracy against the government" was "headed by the US embassy."
To end the crisis, Morales on Wednesday suggested a referendum to see who has the support of the Bolivian people.
Presidential spokesman Alex Contreras said that for Morales or any of the nine governors to step down, the negative votes against them would have to be at least one vote higher than the number of votes they got in the 2005 elections.
In Morales' case, that would mean one vote more than the 1,544,347 votes -- or 54 percent -- his Movement To Socialism Party got in the elections, National Electoral Tribunal data indicated.
The same principle would apply to the nine governors in the proposed referendum, Contreras said.
The nation's governors have yet to respond to Morales' challenge, but those of Santa Cruz, Beni, Tarija, Pando and Cochabamba have said they do not trust the president and his referendum proposal.
Opposition leaders suggested the referendum, should it be approved, would scrap the proposed Constitution, which is to be completed by next Friday, but the government said absolutely not.
"They're two completely different things," Contreras said.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
RSS