BOLIVIA: Bolivia begins electoral registry for December elections

Record ID: 750492

  • Title: BOLIVIA: Bolivia begins electoral registry for December elections
  • Date: 2nd August 2009
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF MAYOR OF CALAMARCA REGISTERING AND SHOWING HIS ID AND DOCUMENT SHOWING HE IS REGISTERED
  • Embargoed: 17th August 2009 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAACGK7FBPXGQ41J8SI59PJLL8K
  • Story Text: Bolivians begin to enroll in the new voter registry for presidential elections to be held in December. President Evo Morales, who will seek reelection, is the first citizen to register.
    The National Electoral Court (CNE) of Bolivia began on Saturday (August 01) registering voters in the new electoral registry that will be used in December's general elections, when President Evo Morales will seek reelection.
    Indigenous residents streamed to the local registry stations in various parts of the country.
    "It is a right and I as a Bolivian have to vote," said Calamarca resident, Demesio Mamani.
    Jacoba Loayza, an Aymara woman born in 1917, was one of the first to register in the new system. She was soon followed by Herminia Rojas Cahuaca.
    "We are participating because it is very important to participate in the elections," said Cahuaca.
    Earlier in the day, President Evo Morales was the first Bolivian to register in the town Villa 14 de septiembre in the central Department of Cochabamba.
    According to estimates by the CNE, the registry will take 75 days to complete and will include some 3.5 million voters in the country and - for the first time - some 200,000 Bolivians living outside the country.
    The establishment of a new voter registry was one of the demands of the opposition to carry out the December 6 election. They had argued that the old system was not secure and could allow fraud.
    "After understanding it, I said: Let's go. And for this reason we are here. To begin, to animate all who are registering to fulfill the mandate of the people included in the Constitution. In other words, to participate in the general elections on December 6," Morales told the crowd gathered to watch him register.
    It took the Bolivian leader seven minutes to register. After, he insisted that all other Bolivians register. In Bolivia voting is obligatory.
    The head of the CNE said it was an historic day in Bolivia.
    "Today we have a milestone in this country. Today we are beginning the modernization of our electoral register which is the beginning of a new state with greater participation," said Antonio Costas.
    The CNE announced that Bolivians outside the country - principally in Argentina, Brazil, the U.S. and Spain - could begin to register in September.
    Morales will seek reelection for the first time in Bolivia's history in the December election.
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