Disable the candidacy for senator of Evo Morales in Bolivia

02/19/2020 - 10:44

• Clarín.com
• World

The Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) of Bolivia disqualified the nominations for senators of former President Evo Morales and his former Foreign Minister Diego Pary, for not complying with the necessary requirements to stand for elections next May 3, sources from the Movement to Socialism reported (MAS) Bolivian.

The information, which was not confirmed by the TSE, ends a debate that began on January 29, when Morales announced that he was returning to Bolivia as an aspiring state senator.

Morales, who is a refugee in Argentina, was a candidate for first senator for Cochabamba and his last chancellor, Diego Pary, aspired to the nomination for senator for Potosí.

Luis Arce , candidate of the MAS for the presidency, was authorized , said MAS sources cited by the Bolivian newspaper El Debe . The members of the TSE will announce their decision during the day.

On Tuesday, before the revision of the TSE, from the MAS considered that "there are no technical or legal reasons to marginalize them from the electoral race" , so they denounced a "political attempt of sectors embedded in the electoral body" to eliminate their candidates for "petty anti-democratic interests." "In the face of this situation, we declare ourselves in a state of permanent emergency," they said.

The Bolivian Constitution establishes that candidates for president and vice president must reside for at least five years before in Bolivia, two in the case of parliamentarians, but there are interpretations that such residence may be intermittent.

Arce left Bolivia last December to be isolated in Mexico, he said then, and then moved to Argentina, from where Morales acts as MAS's campaign manager. The former minister returned to La Paz last month, after being named presidential candidate of his party.

The former president announced on November 10 his resignation, denouncing a coup d'etat to overthrow him, between pressures of police and military commanders, among others, and since then he lives outside of Bolivia.

Morales had been declared the winner for a fourth consecutive term in the October 20 elections, which were later annulled between allegations of fraud in his favor and reports from international organizations warning of irregularities.

With the May 3 elections , Bolivia aspires to settle the political crisis.

With information from Télam.

JPE