Bolivia’s Constitutional Court banned former President Evo Morales (2006-2019) from running in the 2025 presidential election on Saturday, December 30, after overturning the provision for indefinite re-election that had allowed his candidacy in 2019.
“Restricting the possibility of indefinite re-election is an appropriate measure to ensure that a person does not perpetuate himself in power”, indicates the 82-page judgment, published Saturday on the Court’s website. The decision establishes that the president and the vice-president cannot exercise more than two mandates, continuously or discontinuously.
This decision reverses another adopted in 2017 by the same court, the highest in constitutional consultations, which had considered re-election as a ” human rights “. The new decision, described as ” policy “ by Evo Morales, is not subject to appeal.
Morales denounces complicity of magistrates with the government
“This is proof of the complicity of certain magistrates with the Black Plan that the government is carrying out on orders from the empire and with the conspiracy of the Bolivian right”, wrote the former left-wing president on X in reference to the United States. Mr. Morales had expressed his desire to run in 2025, while he was in conflict with Luis Arce, the current president, his political ally and economy minister for most of his mandate since 2006.
For constitutional law specialist Maria Renée Soruco, from the Catholic University of San Pablo, “if a re-election has been authorized beforehand, it is in violation of the constitution itself”. “It’s not about Evo Morales, it’s about defending the rule of law”added Mme Soruco.
The Constitutional Court’s decision is based on a review of the criteria of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, which excluded re-election as a human right. In 2021, this international advisory body issued an advisory opinion, at the request of the Colombian government, on indefinite re-election.
Evo Morales was president of Bolivia from 2006 to 2019, having been re-elected in 2009 and again in 2014. In 2019, he resigned from the presidency amid social unrest and accusations of electoral fraud. When he left the country, he was replaced by Jeanine Añez, who faces trials and convictions for an alleged coup.