Protesters in La Paz demand disqualification of Morales’ candidacy

Several marches of Bolivian groups opposed to the re-election of Evo Morales from different parts of the country arrived in La Paz on Thursday to demand that the electoral body reverse the qualification of Bolivian President Evo Morales as a presidential candidate in 2019.

Thousands of angry Bolivians gathered in the center of La Paz, the administrative capital of Bolivia, as well as major cities, like Cochabamba and Santa Cruz demanding that the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) takes action.

Along the way they held Bolivian and white flags with inscriptions of “Bolivia said no” and chanted the same message that alludes to the result of the 2016 referendum that rejected a constitutional reform to allow Morales the possibility of re-election.

“This is Bolivia, not Venezuela,” thousands of demonstrators chanted, burning a doll representing Bolivian president Morales at the doors of the electoral body and denounced the alleged establishment of a dictatorship in the country.

In an improvised act, the president of the Permanent Assembly of Human Rights of Bolivia (APDHB), Amparo Carvajal, said that the Supreme Electoral Court “has betrayed” the Bolivians’ vote by allowing long-serving President Evo Morales and his vice-president, Alvaro Garcia Linera to stand for a fourth term in office.

On Tuesday night, the Supreme Electoral Court announced the qualified candidates for the primaries prior to the 2019 general elections.

The nomination of Morales and Garcia Linera was allowed with the endorsement of four members of the court, and against two others who assessed that there was a legal clash between a ruling of the Constitutional Court that gives them that right and the 2016 referendum that prevented them from presenting themselves to new elections.