Bolivia's President Evo Morales shows a copy of an agreement that his government offered to opposition parties to set dates for a national referendum on the new constitution and general elections in the main square of La Paz, Monday, Oct. 20, 2008. Morales led more than a 100,000 supporters on a march into the Bolivian capital to demand that Congress call a nationwide vote on a new constitution. (AP Photo/Dado Galdieri)Bolivia, Opposition Agree On Referendum,
Morales Term Limit -- Yahoo News/AFP
Morales Term Limit -- Yahoo News/AFP
LA PAZ, Bolivia (AFP) – Bolivia's government and opposition agreed Monday to a vote on a new constitution and early polls next year after leftwing indigenous President Evo Morales vowed to contest just one more re-election.
The accord paves the way for a vote in congress to enshrine the deal and set the dates of January 25 for the plebiscite and sometime in December 2009 for the legislative and presidential elections, officials said.
The ruling Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) party and the opposition grouping "have reached a decisive accord that completes the structure of the constitutional text," Vice President Alvaro Garcia told a news conference in La Paz.
If passed by Bolivia's 157-seat bi-cameral congress by the required two-thirds majority, the measures could go some way to resolving political instability in South America's poorest nation which has repeatedly flared into street violence.
The MAS and its allies hold 84 of the seats, while the opposition has 73.
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My Comment: I am very skeptical that Morales will limit himself to one more term.