A constitutional referendum was held in

Bolivia Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, w ...

on Sunday, 21 February 2016. The proposed constitutional amendments would have allowed the president and vice president to run for a third consecutive term under the 2009 Constitution (which would be a fourth consecutive term, including their pre-2009 term). The proposal was voted down by a 51.3% majority.

Background

Article 168 of the 2009 constitution allows the President and Vice-President to put themselves forward for re-election only once, limiting the number of terms to two. The governing party, the Movement for Socialism (MAS) sponsored an effort to amend this article. The referendum was authorized by a combined session of the Plurinational Legislative Assembly on 26 September 2015, by a vote of 112 to 41.La ALP sancionó la Ley de Reforma parcial de la CPE
Vice President of BoliviaBolivia passes law to allow Morales to run for fourth term
Reuters, 25 September 2015 Law 757, which convenes the February referendum, was passed 113 to 43, and was promulgated on 5 November 2015. Bolivian elections are conducted under an "act of good governance," which prohibits electoral propaganda in the days before an election, and tightly regulates motorized transport. It was illegal to buy or consume alcohol for 48 hours prior to the referendum to ensure voters took note of their decision. A successful 'yes' vote would have allowed President

Evo Morales Juan Evo Morales Ayma (; born 26 October 1959) is a Bolivian politician, trade union organizer, and former cocalero activist who served as the 65th president of Bolivia from 2006 to 2019. Widely regarded as the country's first president to come ...

and Vice President

Álvaro García Linera Álvaro Marcelo García Linera (; born 19 October 1962) is a Bolivian politician, sociologist, Marxist theoretician, and former guerrilla who served as the 38th vice president of Bolivia from 2006 to 2019. A member of the Movement for Soc ...

to run for a fourth term in office in 2019. Morales had already been elected three times. The first time, in 2006, is not counted as it was before the two term limit was introduced by the 2009 constitution.Consulta para habilitar a Evo está en marcha; El MAS ‘se juega la vida’
La Razón, 6 November 2015

Disinformation campaigns

In the run-up to the referendum, opponents claimed that Morales had fathered an out-of-wedlock child named "Ernesto Fidel Morales" after Ernesto "Che" Guevera and

Fidel Castro Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban politician and revolutionary who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and President of Cuba, president ...

. The story was "mostly fake news." There had been a relationship, but never a child, and the woman had borrowed a child from her aunt to present to the press in support of the false allegations. Referendum supporters claim that the allegations hurt Morales in the polls.

Opinion polls

Results

Aftermath

In September 2017 the Movement for Socialism applied to the Plurinational Constitutional Court to abolish term limits. In November the court ruled in favour of their abolition, citing the

American Convention on Human Rights The American Convention on Human Rights (ACHR), also known as the Pact of San José or by its Spanish name used in most of the signatory nations, ''Convención Americana sobre Derechos Humanos'', is an international human rights instrument. It was ...

. The ruling allowed Morales to run for re-election in the

2019 elections The following elections were scheduled to occur in 2019. The International Foundation for Electoral Systems has a calendar of upcoming elections around the world, and the National Democratic Institute also maintains a calendar of elections in cou ...

References

{{Evo Morales

Constitutional A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed. When these princ ...

Referendums in Bolivia Reelection