MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Bolivia's “re-founding” project firmly on track

Bolivian Congress overwhelmingly passed a bill calling for a constitutional assembly and a regional autonomy referendum, two of President Evo Morales electoral promises on which the “new” Bolivia is to be “re-founded”.

Accordingly Bolivians next July 2 will be electing members to the constitutional assembly and decide on whether the country should have an autonomic regime.

The assembly will have 255 members, 210 of whom selected from the country's territorial districts and 45 chosen from the nine provinces.

The assembly members will begin drafting a new constitution in the city of Sucre, Bolivia's constitutional capital, August 6, which is Bolivia's Independence Day.

The autonomy referendum will be binding only in the provinces where the public opts for installing a system of decentralized rule. The referendum however, states that autonomy will be subject to "the administrative regulatory aspects and the economic-financial resources set forth in the new constitution" that emerges from the assembly.

"This is a step forward of great historic importance", said Vice-president Alvaro García on the bill's approval. "We've managed to balance the current Constitution with the initiatives from the provinces, social movements and indigenous peoples", he added

After Congress approved the laws, Morales congratulated the legislators calling their move another step on the road toward his longstanding dream of "joining and unifying the Bolivian people" and securing the country's "second (national) liberation." Bolivia attained its independence in 1825. "Here the cultural and democratic revolution starts, here the true change awaited by the Bolivian people begins," he said.

The constitutional aassembly and the referendum are the second stage of the mid 2005 political agreement which begun operating with the anticipated general elections of last December when Indian leader Evo Morales was comfortably voted president without the need of a run off.

Mr. Morales the first indigenous Bolivian elected president has promised to "re-found" Bolivia incorporating to government and the economy the Indigenous peoples which are a majority of the population but have been historically left aside by an elite of Spanish and European descendants and mixed breeds.

The political agreement behind the current process should help bring some stability to Bolivia which is divided between an impoverished mostly Indigenous west and the provinces of the east rich in mineral resources, hydrocarbons and agriculture, led by Santa Cruz that is pushing for the autonomy regime.

In the last five years Bolivia's has had five presidents.