There have been calls in the past for Evo to step down, but now they’ve become more commonplace.
Yesterday, Ruben Ardaya (the Tarija prefecture’s Secretary of Planning) suggested in a radio interview that a solution to the country’s political & economic crisis was for a new presidential election. Though he also suggested that Evo could run for reelection, in that instance. Members of the opposition also back such a call.
Ardaya’s stance is interesting. Ardaya is a Bolivian social scientist specializing in municipal decentralization & popular participation reforms. He was a member of the original National Secretariat of Popular Participation (SNPP), along w/ José Luis Exeni (now Evo’s appointee to the National Electoral Court) & Carlos Hugo Molina (now also in the opposition). One by one, the veterans of the early 1990s “Popular Participation” reforms seem to be drifting apart, as the country’s new polarization extends even to them.
But an early election in Bolivia wouldn’t be unprecedented. In 1984, Siles Zuazo called early elections (for 1985), ending his term of office early.1 The move was long hailed as a definitive moment in the country’s democratic transition. Siles Zuazo was barred from running in the 1985 general election, however. The winner was Paz Estenssoro.
An early election would also fit a broad definition of “popular democracy” (the kind of democracy Evo’s supporters argue for). Additionally, the 2004 Constitution specifically allows for referendums and recall elections.2 Thus, it’s difficult to argue that a recall vote on Evo—especially one in which he could stand for reelection—isn’t a “democratic” compromise. If Evo retains popular support, he should win reelection. If Evo can’t win reelection, it means there’s no popular mandate for his government.
Increasingly, Evo’s government is finding it harder to defend its actions on liberal or procedural democratic principles. That disjuncture is losing him support among the middle classes & the intelligentsia (w/ the notable exception of some true ideologues). I don’t yet understand why Evo—who has shown himself to be a crafty political actor in his cocalero leader days—seems determined to paint himself into a corner.
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1 Though Siles Zuazo ran for the presidency in 1980, he was elected by the parliament (under Bolivia’s “parliamentarized” presidential system) in 1982. He was due to step down in 1986.
2 The substantial reforms to the constitution made by the legislature in 2004 were hailed as a “new” constitution. For a short description of its changes, relative to the 1995 Constitution, see: http://www.centellas.org/miguel/archives/000679.html
