The holding of new presidential and legislative elections in Bolivia now depends on the Parliament, since a bill in this sense was drafted by the country's interim presidency, Jeanine Añez, on Wednesday 20-November.
One month after the presidential election of 20 October, which marked the start of a violent political crisis, this text would cancel the presidential election after which Evo Morales was proclaimed re-elected for a fourth term. The bill would also allow the establishment of a new Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) to set a date for the new ballot. The electoral institution was at the heart of a controversy over the counting of the votes of the presidential election.
The outcome of the vote is uncertain, since in Parliament, the Movement to Socialism (MAS) of the former president Evo Morales is the majority. President Añez said at a press conference that she wanted to create a "national consensus". However, it retains the possibility of issuing a presidential decree to call elections.
In the morning of Wednesday, the acting president announced that she would convene presidential and legislative elections in the coming hours. "God willing, today, in the morning, we will call the elections, as claimed by the whole country," she told the press.
The serious post-election crisis that is shaking the country has left 32 dead. The prosecutor's office has revised upwards to eight dead, the balance of clashes Tuesday between the police and supporters of Evo Morales near the refinery of Senkata, a few kilometers from La Paz.
Evo Morales, indigenous president of Bolivia, resigned on 10 November under pressure from the street and after being released by the army. He then went into exile in Mexico.
With AFP