Out of the race. Bolivia's Constitutional Court has barred former President Evo Morales from running in the 2025 presidential election, after striking down the indefinite re-election provision that allowed him to run in 2019.
"Restricting the possibility of indefinite re-election is an appropriate measure to ensure that a person does not perpetuate himself in power," said the 82-page ruling, published on the court's website on Saturday.
This decision overturns another adopted in 2017 by the same court, the highest in constitutional consultations, which had considered re-election a "human right".
The new decision, described as "political" by Evo Morales, is not subject to appeal.
"This is proof of the complicity of some magistrates with the Plan Noir that the government is carrying out on the orders of the empire and with the conspiracy of the Bolivian right," the leftist ex-president wrote on X (formerly Twitter) in reference to the United States.
La sentencia política del TCP autoprorrogado es la prueba de la complicidad de algunos magistrados con el Plan Negro que ejecuta el gobierno por órdenes del imperio y con la conspiración de la derecha boliviana.
Como hicieron en 2002 al expulsarnos del Congreso, los neoliberales... pic.twitter.com/KLJ27RyueU
— Evo Morales Ayma (@evoespueblo) December 30, 2023
The decision of the Constitutional Court establishes that the President and Vice-President may not serve more than two terms, continuously or intermittently.
'Rule of law'
Evo Morales had expressed his desire to be a candidate in 2025, when he was in conflict with Luis Arce, the current president, his political ally and economy minister for most of his tenure since 2006.
For constitutional law scholar Maria Renée Soruco, of the Catholic University of San Pablo, "if a re-election was allowed beforehand, it is in violation of the constitution itself." "This is not about Evo Morales, but about defending the rule of law," she added.
The Constitutional Court's decision is based on a revision of the criteria of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, which ruled out re-election as a human right.
In 2021, this international advisory body issued an advisory opinion, at the request of the Colombian government, on indefinite re-election.
Read alsoBolivia, the Evo years
Evo Morales was president of Bolivia from 2006 to 2019, having been re-elected in 2009 and again in 2014. In 2019, he resigned from the presidency amid social unrest and accusations of electoral fraud. When he left the country, he was replaced by Jeanine Añez, who is facing trial and conviction for an alleged coup.
With AFP
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