EVO WINS ! Election law passed, ends hunger strike

[rabs]

Marathon session in Bolivian Senate ended (shortly after 4 a.m.) with approval of law calling for elections in December. Morales will be eligible for re-election. :woohoo:

Opposition senators who were blocking the measure caved in under pressure.

Morales announced he was ending five-day hunger strike. He should now be able to attend ALBA conference and Summit of the Americas.

Law calls for new voter IDs, authorizes Bolivians living abroad to vote, autonomy referendums for five departments (the Media Luna departments) and more voting rights for indigenous people.

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Source: TELAM (Official Argentine news agency)

06:07 - INTERNACIONALES

El Congreso de Bolivia aprobó el Código Electoral propuesto por Evo Morales


El parlamento sancionó durante la madrugada la propuesta enviada por el Ejecutivo. La norma permitirá la celebración de elecciones generales el domingo 6 de diciembre. El presidente había realizado una huelga de hambre protestando contra la oposición que bloqueaba la medida.


El presidente boliviano, Evo Morales, puso fin a cinco días de huelga de hambre después de que el Congreso Nacional aprobara hoy un código electoral que permitirá la celebración de elecciones generales en diciembre próximo.

La ley electoral fue aprobada esta madrugada a las 4.11 (las 5.11 en la Argentina) tras un debate parlamentario de más de diez horas con participación activa de la oposición, que había dejado el pasado jueves sin quórum al Congreso boliviano por masivo abandono, según reportó la agencia alemana DPA.

"Hemos trabajado durante varias horas y varios días, pero al final hemos aprobado este documento importante para el país", dijo el vicepresidente boliviano, Alvaro García Linera, que preside el Congreso Nacional.

El código electoral transitorio da paso a un nuevo padrón electoral con registro biométrico, siete escaños para pueblos indígenas, referendo autonómico para los departamentos de La Paz, Cochabamba, Oruro, Potosí, Chuquisaca y la provincia tarijeña del Gran Chaco.

También por primera vez se admitirá el voto en el exterior.

El código de 76 artículos y nueve transitorios fue producto de una larga y tensa negociación que forzó al presidente Morales a iniciar el pasado jueves una huelga de hambre respaldada por unas 2.500 personas en varias ciudades de Bolivia, la Argentina y España.

Morales anunció esta mañana que finalizaba su ayuno e informó que a las 8.00 (las 9 en la Argentina) promulgará la nueva ley, documento clave para las elecciones de diciembre, donde buscará su reelección.

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[Judi Lynn]

1. Oh, my God! I just saw your post. I'm going back to read it more closely. This is wonderful. n/t

[rabs]

2. Judi, maybe you can find a version in English

for the bigger crowd in LBN. I don't know if LBN in Spanish is allowed. Had been listening to radio from La Paz when it was announced and found the Telam version.

Yep, it's good news. Now the more than 2,000 hunger strikers in Bolvia, Spain and Argentina can have a good breakfast. :-)

[Judi Lynn]

4. I'll take a look around, and see what comes up, rabs.

On edit:

Well, I'm back! Not one peep, yet. Not one.

I checked all the usual places. One headline says "Hunger-striking Bolivian president to miss two summits", even.

You got far ahead of corporate news. Congrats!

[Judi Lynn]

3. rabs, it's hard to believe they didn't cause far more trouble, since we know they have, already!

What, not another massacre? No raids by their neo-nazi shock troops into Native Bolivian neighborhoods with clubs with spikes embedded in them? No public beatings and humiliations of native Bolivian citizens unlucky enough to be caught in town?

Your point made about the freedom Evo Morales has now to attend these conferences is exceptional. He'll have SO MUCH to celebrate with the other new leaders, the GOOD leaders of Latin America.

What a wildly wonderful goal to have met overnight, on the way to true freedom in Bolivia. I'll bet Evo didn't expect it to conclude so quickly.

(When you think about it, the opposition has probably been losing profound support after so many years of violence, and abuse against Bolivian indigenous people, and the last mass slaughter in Pando. They DO know they're wildly outnumbered, and that they can NEVER bribe or trick nearly enough of them by now to make the critical advantage for their side.

If only our own fascist greedy buggerers could learn their lesson more quickly.)

You broke this story. So glad I was here within a couple of minutes to be the first witness! :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo:

[Judi Lynn]

5. First story in English, and it's damned odd!

Bolivia Congress Approves Law Extending Pres' Term Limits

Tuesday April 14th, 2009 / 13h58

LA PAZ (AFP)--Bolivia's Congress on Tuesday approved a new electoral code which President Evo Morales had gone on hunger strike to demand.

The new legislation - approved after nine hours of intense debate - would allow Morales to run for a second term five-year term.

The bill sets rules for Dec. 6 elections under a controversial new constitution which also gives Bolivia's indigenous communities rights to territory and their own systems of justice.

Opposition lawmakers had delayed the passage of the bill, prompting Morales to go on a hunger strike that was to enter its sixth day on Tuesday.

"In these moments we are lifting the hunger strike" said Pedro Montes, a leading member of the Bolivian Workers' Center, which had called on thousands of supporters to mimic the fast.

http://www.easybourse.com/bourse-actualite/marches/bolivia-congress-approves-law-extending-pres-term-limits-650420

[magbana]

6. Venceremos! n/t

[Judi Lynn]

7. Reuters: Bolivian president ends hunger strike to promote law

Bolivian president ends hunger strike to promote law
Apr 14, 2009 10:59 AM

Eduardo Garcia
reuters

LA PAZ – Bolivia's congress approved a controversial electoral law today after leftist president Evo Morales went on a hunger strike for nearly five days to protest against opposition lawmakers blocking the bill.

The law sets presidential and congressional elections for December 6, assigns a small number of congressional seats to poor, indigenous areas where Morales is popular, and allows Bolivian expatriates to vote for the first time.

Opposition leaders had objected, claiming the bill would unfairly give the government an electoral advantage.

Recent polls suggest that Morales, the country's first indigenous president and a fierce critic of Washington, will likely win re-election.

More:
http://www.thestar.com/News/World/article/618106

[EFerrari]

8. This is the new voter id, right? "un nuevo padrón electoral con registro biométrico"

This makes it more difficult for poor people to vote. Does anyone know the thinking behind this?

[Judi Lynn]

9. Here's a google translation of an article from Red Bolivia:

(This is really, really strange, and probably will be so damned hard to ennact with so many people living so far up in the mountains. It would be an extraordinarily difficult thing for them to accomplish.)

Home Company News Bolivia: Record Biometric Voter would give transparency to
Bolivia: Record Biometric Voter would give transparency to
RedBolivia
Biometric Registration

La Paz, Bolivia .- Suggest implemented a voter registration based on a biometric (fingerprint identification) and ensuring transparency in the elections in Bolivia.

The senator of the opposition alliance Poder Democrático Social (PODEMOS), Carlos Borth, Tuesday felt necessary to implement the biometric registration to prevent "irregularities denounced by the opposition in the current electoral roll and ensure transparency in the general elections of December 2009 .

Bohrt that it would be important to include in the registration control biometric fingerprint and photograph perhaps to overcome the deficiencies in the electoral roll and therefore the alleged electoral fraud. "

Because this process can not be implemented overnight suggested we make the backbone starting at: La Paz, Cochabamba and Santa Cruz, and in some cities and rural communities.

The opposition senator sure that the fingerprint with the possibility of fraud is reduced substantially, as he recalled that the possibility of having two people with the same characteristics is 1 in 10 million.

Meanwhile, the National Electoral Court (CNE) has expressed its desire to use the biometric registration form to the voter of Bolivians living abroad and to be borne in the December elections.

José Luis Exeni, president of the CNE reported that a definition expected to start operating this ambitious project.

"We expect more than four million citizens tomándoles photographs, including fingerprints, signatures. It is a job that requires a very large social mobilization and institutional and technological support much we just conform to this definition," he explained.

http://www.redbolivia.com/noticias/sociedad/1067-bolivia-registro-biometrico-daria-transparencia-al-padron-electoral.html



www.eldeber.com.bo/2008/2008-02-04/index.php



I saw his name connected in a article somewhere to Branko Marinkovic, one of the most powerful opposition guys in Bolivia. I can look for it later. These people all come from the same area that spawned the genocidal US-supported dictator Hugo Banzer who had US material support in his coup, and who also actually EMPLOYED Nazi "Butcher of Lyon," Klaus Barbi who moved there after the Second World War, threw indigenous people off their ancient lands, and brought in white settlers from South Africa to create his "white Bolivia."

[EFerrari]

10. So, the opposition DID originate this measure.

"The senator of the opposition alliance Poder Democrático Social (PODEMOS), Carlos Borth, Tuesday felt necessary to implement the biometric registration to prevent "irregularities denounced by the opposition in the current electoral roll and ensure transparency in the general elections of December 2009 ."

This is for vote suppression -- that's all it's for. Maybe the Morales government felt it had to trade something in exchange for the rest of the package.

[rabs]

11. It was a compromise to get the law passed

It could backfire big time on the rightwing opposition.

Morales on Saturday, third day of the impasse, signed a decree providing US$35 million for a complete renovation of the voter registration rolls. There are about four million voters and the updates have to be ready for the elections in December.

The government has invited or plans to invite international observers from the OAS, UN, EU and the Carter Center to follow the process.

At first I was not sure what "biometrico padron" was but it involves finger-printing and a photograph for each registered voter. This will eliminate double or even multiple voting and IDs used for fraud, no matter whether it is done for the rightwing or the left.

The National Police Chief today announced that new biometric national ID cards will be issued in conjunction with the creation of the biometric voting rolls.

Morales accepted the inclusion of the padron to get the new law passed, and suspect he knows the rightwing is so weakened nationally that it will not affect voting in December.

Saw today where the opposition has shifted their sights to the president of the Corte Nacional Electoral (CNE), José Luis Exeni. The right has called on his firing in a new move to somehow impede the elections and moves like this are liable to go on until December.

An unexpected result of the impasse were the hunger strikes in solidarity with Morales in Argentina and Spain, the two countries with the most expats. Now that they will have the right to vote abroad, more support for Morales that he did not have before. About two million Bolivians live abroad but don't know how many of those are eligible to vote.

[EFerrari]

12. Before I started educating myself about Latin America

my main focus was on election fraud.

These I.D.s are always put into place to disenfranchise the poor. That's why the right wing in the US is always pushing for them -- because they know the poor will vote against them.

[rabs]

13. I am more optimistic

Morales' own government's Corte Nacional Electoral will be in charge of the process, not the rightwing.

Because Morales' government IS the government of the poor, hardly think it would disenfranchise its own supporters.

[EFerrari]

14. Requiring voter ID always works against the poor, rabs.

And this was sponsored by the opposition, not by Morales.

Maybe there's more to this than we know right now. But voter ID is always an obstacle meant to suppress the votes of people who have no transportation to go apply for one or no money to pay the fee or some such chanchada.