BOLIVIA: Morales Calls for Unity after Landslide Victory

• by Franz Chávez (la paz)
• Monday, December 07, 2009
• Inter Press Service

'Come and work for the Bolivian people, above and beyond any regional demands. Bolivia comes first; we have to join together,' Morales said Sunday night from the balcony of the presidential palace in La Paz.

The message was addressed to business and leaders and intellectuals in the so-called 'eastern crescent' - the wealthier eastern lowlands that account for most of the country's natural gas production, industry, agribusiness and GDP, which have been pushing for complete economic and political autonomy.

The 50-year-old Morales' support base is largely made up of indigenous people, who comprise 60 percent of the population and are concentrated in the impoverished western highlands.

For the first time, Bolivians abroad - mainly in Argentina, Brazil, Spain and the United States - cast ballots in elections.

Morales, the first-ever indigenous president in this landlocked South American country of 10.2 million people, broke the record he set in the December 2005 elections, when he took 53.7 percent of the vote - an unprecedented majority in a country where leaders are sometimes elected with less than half that level of support.

The leader of the Movement to Socialism (MAS) thus won a second term, which will be five instead of four years long, under the new constitution that went into effect in February. His second term starts in January.

The president's popularity is largely based on four years of policies oriented towards the poor, the elderly, schoolchildren and expectant mothers, and on the renationalisation of the country's natural gas reserves and public enterprises that were privatised and sold off to foreign corporations by his predecessors.

'The people are making history thanks to their conscious participation in the elections, and they are showing that it is possible to change Bolivia through their votes,' said the left-wing president.

Morales said the outcome of Sunday's elections will lead to a deepening of the process of economic, social and cultural changes sweeping Bolivia.

The president's party also won at least 110 of the 166 seats in Congress, a large enough majority to make it possible to effectively implement the new constitution, one of whose central aims is to bolster the rights of the country's historically downtrodden indigenous majority.

Although the official results won't come out for another 10 days, pollsters say the MAS won 86 out of 130 seats in the lower house of Congress and 25 out of 36 in the Senate - the exact number needed to make structural changes in state institutions aimed at reducing social inequalities, according to government spokespersons.

'People were saying the middle class abandoned Evo. That's false: here is the middle class,' the president said, pointing to the enormous crowd massed outside the presidential palace to celebrate his triumph Sunday.

In the view of history Professor Alexis Pérez, the middle class gave their votes to Morales in exchange for cash transfers.

The Ministry of Economy and Public Finance reports that 2.5 million children, pregnant women and elderly persons, equivalent to 25 percent of the population, are beneficiaries of the government's cash transfer programmes, which include a pension for people over 60, a stipend for poor families that keep their children in school, and monthly payments for pregnant women and nursing mothers.

Morales' closest rival, the right-wing former Cochabamba governor Manfred Reyes Villa, took 27 percent of the vote, while cement industry tycoon Samuel Doria Medina, of the centre-right National Unity party, won just six percent.

Another indigenous leader, former Potosí mayor René Joaquino, took just three percent of the vote, but his Social Alliance movement won three seats in Congress.

Pérez told IPS that there was a lack of leadership and constructive proposals in the opposition parties, which 'based on a script inherited from (economic) liberalism, offered support to small businesses and farmers, but without comprehending the realities of people in remote rural areas.'

'Their interpretation did not reflect Bolivia's reality, and the people preferred to vote for someone who gives them cash transfers instead,' said the historian.

After conceding defeat, former army captain Reyes Villa promised to continue 'fighting for democracy' and for Bolivia's interests.

'I have no intention of leaving the country,' he said, refuting reports that he planned to flee after the elections to evade legal charges of misuse of funds.

Morales' overwhelming victory reflects a desire by Bolivian society to slam the doors of power shut once and for all on the elites who governed from 1985 to 2003, sociologist Franco Gamboa told IPS.

He said that among the challenges facing the new president are improving diplomatic relations with the United States and streamlining the administration of public finances.

Another challenge is the shrinking of natural gas revenues caused by the drop in oil prices, he said.

Although revenues soared after Morales renegotiated the terms of the contracts under which foreign oil firms operate in the country, and raised royalties and taxes on natural gas, the plunge in prices hit the country hard.

Exports of natural gas and oil brought in two billion dollars in 2007, compared to just 188 million dollars in 2001.

Pérez questioned the government's socialist model, and said that in a country where most of the population is poor - Bolivia is the poorest country in South America - the tax burden on the middle class is heavy.

He also said the government won the support of the police and military by supplying them with technology and equipment.

The head of the European Union mission of election observers, Renate Weber, said Sunday's vote was smooth and calm, and there were no serious complaints of irregularities.

© Inter Press Service (2009) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service

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