{President’s bid to run for another term appears to be headed toward a slim defeat, unofficial partial vote counts show.}<\/p>\n
An attempt by Bolivian President Evo Morales to run for another term by amending the constitution appeared headed toward a slim electoral defeat, according to unofficial partial vote counts and early results.<\/p>\n
Morales, 56, now serving a third term, was trying to change the constitution so he could run for re-election in 2019, potentially allowing the former coca grower to remain president until 2025.<\/p>\n
But exit polls showed he may have lost the vote. An Ipsos poll had the “no” side at 52.3 percent and “yes” at 47.7 percent, while a Mori poll gave a narrower 51 percent to 49 percent lead to the “no” side.<\/p>\n
Early official results had the “no” side winning with 66 percent of votes, although that covered only 3 percent of returns. Turnout had been very high, at nearly 88 percent, according to the electoral commission.<\/p>\n
The government urged patience, calling the results a tie and saying it was too early to call.<\/p>\n
“We are really talking about a dead heat at the moment. So it would be better to hold your enthusiasm and calmly wait for results,” the country’s vice president Alvaro Garcia told reporters.<\/p>\n
“All your celebration may well turn into weeping.”<\/p>\n
If the result is confirmed, it would be another blow for South America’s once dominant populist leftist movement that has suffered a series of recent electoral defeats across the continent.<\/p>\n
Morales, Bolivia’s first indigenous president, has been credited with slashing poverty in one of the region’s poorest countries. He took office in 2006 and was re-elected in 2014 with 61 percent of the vote.<\/p>\n
But a growing number of critics charge his administration with corruption, waste and authoritarianism.<\/p>\n
Recent allegations about an ex-girlfriend whose company won lucrative government contracts have weighed heavily on his popularity.<\/p>\n
Economic boom<\/p>\n
Morales presided over an unprecedented economic boom as prices for raw materials soared just as he took office. He built airports, highways and the pride of La Paz, an Austrian-built aerial tramway system.<\/p>\n
He also put a Chinese-built satellite into space. Average per capita income rose from $873 to $3,119 and a new indigenous middle class was born.<\/p>\n
But the boom is over. Bolivia’s revenues from natural gas and minerals, making up three-fourths of its exports, were down 32 percent last year.<\/p>\n
Source: Al Jazeera:[->http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2016\/02\/bolivia-morales-set-lose-referendum-fourth-term-160222033644138.html]Bolivia’s Morales set to lose referendum on fourth term<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{President’s bid to run for another term appears to be headed toward a slim defeat, unofficial partial vote counts show.} An attempt by Bolivian President Evo Morales to run for another term by amending the constitution appeared headed toward a slim electoral defeat, according to unofficial partial vote counts and early results. Morales, 56, now […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[101],"byline":[2474],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-23415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-48","tag-internationl","byline-al-jazeera"],"bylines":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23415"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23415\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23415"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=23415"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=23415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}