(File under: Politics) As an introduction to today’s postings (three or four in total) let’s review the most interesting articles published in today’s newspapers (divided by geographical region):
West:
- Front page of La Razón: Evo Morales says he’ll respect the results.- Suspicions rose as Evo attacked once and again the legitimacy of the National Electoral Court and its directives, however yesterday night, during his last address to the press he claimed he’ll respect the outcomes, regardless of implications for his rule.
- Second story: Demographics in Play. - According to data from the CNE’s national electoral roll, 31 percent of the population entitled to vote today (about 3.7 million) or 1.2 million falls within the 18-30 year old age range. Of which 311.752 are between 18 and 21 years old. The department with the largest “young” voting population is La Paz, with 378,273, followed by Santa Cruz, Cochabamba and Potosí.
- Front page of La Prensa: MAS moves to capture two thirds of the Constituent Assembly (CA) seats. - Two thirds or 170 votes out of 255 seats are necessary to pass any regulation or modification to the constitution in the CA, MAS has seen capturing that many votes as unlikely and begun negotiations with other parties, including Juan del Granado’s MSM, the MBL and other traditional parties.
- Second story: The church[es] advocate voting. - In a rare event most of the Christian denominations present in Bolivia (Catholic, Presbyterian, Methodist, Lutheran and Anglican) issued a joint communiqué encouraging voting this Sunday. No official positions regarding certain issues (such as the official religion and religious education in schools) were published at this time.
- In La Patria’s Front page, a good editorial.- "An “ideal” constitution does not and will ever exist".
Central:
- Los Tiempos’ main story: Fear and expectations open electoral day.
- Secondary: AND, MNR and MIR play their last political cards.- Though I doubt any of these parties will cease to exist in the immediate future they do need a decent amount of votes in order to retain their rights as registered political entities.
- Be sure to read Opinión’s special report on the expenses incurred in preparing the Constituent Assembly, $1.5 million only in Sucre.
East:
- El Deber updates twice today, perhaps they’ll even issue a special edition as results come in, so visit their website to stay abreast of the situation in Santa Cruz. Its mid-day edition reports of no unexpected trouble throughout the day.
- El Nuevo Día. - Reports on the OAS observer mission being pleased with the election process so far. It’s also publishing interviews to several analysts.
- Bolivia-Riberalta.com. - Informs of voting stations being transported even by unconventional methods :)
UPDATE (3:12PM EST): In a clear violation of Article 120 of the Bolivian Electoral Code (prohibition of broadcasting of exit poll results until 6:00PM) the MAS-controlled Official News Agency -ABI- has published the results of the first table closing in Sucre. They of course were published because they favor the ruling party and autonomy lost by four votes. Where is this table you may ask? San Roque’s 50-intern Public Penitentiary. Obviously MAS is scrambling to influence the results even if it means breaking the law. As of this writing the official radio station (Radio Illimani, available in iTunes) had also broadcasted the results. Bolpress, a growing Bolivian news agency, makes the same violation, and cites article 120 in the same report!.
Tag: South America, Bolivia, elections, Autonomy, Evo Morales.(Category: Politics)
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