Decisive week for Bolivia elections

Bolivia: Bolivia lives as of Monday a decisive week for the implementation of a new electoral plan aimed at guaranteeing the December 6 general and April 2010 regional elections.

According to the first transitory dispositions of the current Constitution, the Congress had only two months to approve a rule about this issue, and only eight days are left.

The Deputy Chamber, controlled by the governing Movement towards Socialism (MAS), approved the project demanded by the Constitution, an initiative subject to the Senate plenary session as of today.

According to experts, debates promise to be intense, considering the announced position of those contrary to the executive to carry out important changes in the governing proposal.

“We should modify aspects linked to the voting of residents abroad and the access of indigenous people to the Plurinational Legislative Assembly (name of the Bolivian Parliament as of 2010),” Luis Vasquez of the opposition stated.

For MAS, the project must be unchanged unless the Senate acts quickly to approve an electoral plan within the limit established in the February 7 text.

The aim of MAS enemies is to block the initiative and hinder the elections, parliamentarians Antonio Peredo and Felix Rojas said.

La Paz, Prensa Latina