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International Elections Observation Mission: Day Two
Thursday, December 3rd, 2009
By J.R. Claeys
This news video is of recent clashes between campaigns in Bolivia.
While waiting for clearance to enter Bolivia we had an opportunity to visit with many Bolivians at the consulate in Miami. They discussed the sometimes-violent clashes between campaigns that are taking place in regions of the country where the current president is less popular. The heated exchanges are due to the current president's efforts to nationalize industries and redistribute wealth and power to a select set of people.
The United Nations has issued condemnations of the most recent clashes between opposing campaigns.
The country has two capital cities. La Paz, where the president and legislature are located and Santa Cruz where the traditional capital and the supreme court is located. The National Electoral Court (CNE) is also located there.
The courts oppose much of what the current president has done and went so far as to issue a last-minute ruling requiring birth certificates at the polling stations on election day as a requirement to vote. The court believes there are over 400,000 undocumented individuals in Bolivia who may attempt to vote. We will learn more about this issue in the coming days and determine the best course of action to prevent attempts at fraudulent voting.
New York and Washington, D.C. will host polling stations for Bolivian citizens living in the United States. The recently-passed Bolivian constitution allows for polling stations in the United States, Brazil, Argentina and Spain. Though a law limits the number of votes allowed from outside the country to a total of 210,000 votes. Like many other poor Central and South American countries, Bolivian citizens migrate to the United States to work and send money back to their families. These remittances often make up 25 to 50 percent of a nation's GDP.
Tomorrow we will be visiting the legislature and the presidential palace to speak with party members on each side of the election. There are three major candidates and dozens of other party nominees on the ballot. Two are splitting what would be considered the conservative vote, giving the socialist Morales an easy path to victory.
» Photo Gallery: Elections Observation Mission
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