2024-02-08 14:15:09
The Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) of Bolivia reported this Wednesday that Judicial elections could be held on September 22 of this year, if Congress issues the call after the promulgation of the norm by President Luis Arce. Sectors related to former President Evo Morales called to block the routes from January 22 against the extension of the mandate of the magistrates and the constitutional ruling that disqualifies the presidential candidacy of the coca grower leader. With the news of the call for judicial elections, the protest measure was suspended on Tuesday, although the bases remain on alert.
The election of judges advances
In reference to the schedule established by the new law, the TSE member, Tahuichi Tahuichi Quispeassured: “On April 26, the list of preselected applicants should be sent to the judicial body. And, if that were the case, the elections would be held as such on September 22.” For his part, member Francisco Vargas said that the date will be set based on the deadlines stipulated in Law 1549 of judicial elections that President Arce promulgated. on Tuesday.
According to the standard The legislative branch must send the list of preselected applicants to the TSE within 80 days. to participate in judicial elections. Then there is 150 days for the TSE to hold the elections. “Based on technical criteria, we are going to assume an institutional position defining the date for the election, which could take place between the month of August or the month of September,” Vargas told the Unitel channel.
Vargas pointed out that “this is going to be a task that is going to emanate from the consultations that can also be made to all the departmental electoral courts, to our National Directorate of Electoral Processes and to all the instances that are part of the Electoral Body.” President Arce sanctioned on Tuesday the law to call judicial elections, which establishes the requirements, deadlines, criteria and procedure for the selection of candidates for magistrates in the Plurinational Legislative Assembly and the TSE.
The process has a period of 230 days or the equivalent of seven months and 20 days to elect by popular vote the authorities of the Constitutional Court, the Supreme Court of Justice, the Judicial Council and the Agro-Environmental Court. The norm also establishes that the electoral process must have national and international observation and that the preselection of candidates in the Assembly must be approved by two-thirds of the votes of the legislators.
In Bolivia, the senior judges of the judicial body are elected by popular vote every six years.. However, the lack of agreements in Congress postponed the holding of these elections from 2023. The agreement reached between the political forces to set a date for the judicial elections put on hold protests by peasants related to former president Evo Morales who had been blocking routes for two years. weeks.
Judicial and political crisis
The demonstrations began after the Constitutional Court disqualified the former indigenous president (2006-2019) from running for president again in 2025, alleging that he had already fulfilled the two terms allowed by the Constitution. On the other hand, the Magna Carta in force since 2009 introduced the election by popular vote of the magistrates and counselors of the country’s highest courts.
The elections to renew the magistrates were to be held in December 2023, but the candidate pre-selection process was blocked in Parliament, in response to which the Constitutional Court extended its mandate and that of the other judges to avoid a “power vacuum.” The “evista” sectors, which support the former governor and leader of the ruling Movement towards Socialism (MAS), demanded the resignation of the judges of the country’s highest courts and the holding of judicial elections.
Arce and Morales have been estranged since late 2021, when the former president asked the president to make changes to his cabinet, calls that the president ignored, which were followed by mutual accusations of corruption and betrayal. Now Morales accuses the government of boycotting the judicial elections and endorsing the extension of magistrates and councilors elected in 2017.
“Thanks to the unity of the Bolivian people, through social organizations and the leadership of the indigenous movement, judicial elections were approved and guaranteed“wrote the former president in his X account, where he highlighted the popular mobilization”in the face of a government that during 2023 boycotted and prevented the approval of the law that it also illegally sponsored and supported that the magistrates extend themselves violating the Political Constitution of the State and democracy.”
From the other side, the vice minister of Autonomies, Alvaro Ruizreproached that “The judicial elections suffered a delay due to the irresponsibility of senators and deputies of the political opposition and some radicals.” The blockades, which were still maintained on some roads near the department of Cochabamba, which is Morales’ political and union stronghold, were lifted after the approval of the rule that enables judicial elections.