WP : Bolivia's Constitution Being Rewritten

Bolivia's Constitution Being Rewritten

By DAN KEANE | The Associated Press | August 29, 2006

LA PAZ, Bolivia -- The assembly rewriting Bolivia's constitution could on Tuesday make a major power grab supported by the president by giving itself supreme authority to draw up a new framework without having to answer to Congress or the courts.

However, a vote on the motion could be delayed because of disputes among delegates from President Evo Morales' Movement Toward Socialism party.

The assembly began earlier this month, and elected delegates have one year to create a new constitution for the South American country.

Morales, a leftist elected as Bolivia's first Indian president in December, envisions the assembly as a means to undo the centuries-old dominance of the European-descended minority and to create more opportunity for the poor, indigenous majority.

He has called for the assembly to be declared "original" _ or free to create an entirely new Bolivia without interference of the current government.

"We want no power to exist above the assembly, so that it can develop in absolute freedom and according to the mandate of the people," said Robert Aguilar, a delegate for the Movement Toward Socialism party, or MAS.

Opponents, though, say declaring the assembly all-powerful goes against the body's own bylaws, and would divide the country in two. They fear Morales could use it to shut down all branches of government but his own.

"It would be a grave political error, and a grave tactical error," said conservative former vice president Victor Hugo Cardenas of the National Revolutionary Movement party.

Cardenas said conservatives would decry such an assembly _ and any government it would create _ as illegitimate, creating the "possible danger of confrontations, which no Bolivians wish for."

Conservative party Podemos, which has sought to limit the assembly's mandate to merely editing Bolivia's current constitution, claims the MAS delegates plan to establish a totalitarian regime.

"The only thing Morales aspires to is the complete power to throw out the legitimately chosen authorities," said Ruben Dario Cuellar, head of the constitutional delegates from Podemos.

MAS holds a thin majority in the assembly, but not the two-thirds needed to control the 255-member assembly outright.

To obtain minor-party support for the motion, MAS on Sunday agreed to adhere to the two-thirds requirement, meaning the opposition still will have the power to eventually block the new document from becoming the law of the land.

However, some MAS delegates Tuesday were still hoping to disregard the two-thirds rule and control the assembly through their party's simple majority. Negotiations among party delegates were continuing, with the assembly scheduled to meet in the afternoon.

Any changes to government structures approved by the assembly won't go into effect until the new constitution it creates is passed by a nationwide referendum at the end of 2007.

Bolivia's current constitution was adopted in 1967 under Rene Barrientos Ortuno, who rose to power in a military coup and was then elected president. Its last modification came in 1994, when President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada pushed through changes to the electoral process, including expanding presidential terms from four years to five.