Bolivian Executive Adjusts Referendum Questions To Send It to the Constitutional Court

Bolivia’s Electoral Supreme Court. Photo: X/ @luisanayars

August 24, 2024 Hour: 3:12 pm

The minister of the Presidency of Bolivia, María Nela Prada reports that the Bolivian Executive adjusts the questions of the referendum that were observed by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) to send them to the Constitutional and so that the consultation is carried out in December.

“The corresponding work is being carried out on the basis of the three questions, it is a reformulation more of form than of substance,” Prada told the press.

Previoulsy the electoral entity adopted a report that indicated that three questions did not include the criteria of clarity, precision and impartiality, while a fourth was discarded.

On Wednesday, Arce sent to the electoral agency four questions of the referendum scheduled for December 1, together with judicial elections, on the nature of the presidential re-election (1), the gasoline subsidy (2), diesel subsidy (3) the distribution of seats in the Chamber of Deputies (4).

Con la misma convicción democrática con la que el Presidente Luis Arce ha convocado al referéndum, recibimos los criterios técnicos del TSE para precisar las preguntas 1, 2 y 3.
Haremos los ajustes necesarios a las preguntas y las remitiremos el día lunes a primera hora al TCP… pic.twitter.com/20mpsVvtth
— Ivan Lima Magne 🇧🇴 (@ivanlimamagne) August 24, 2024

“With the same democratic conviction with which President Luis Arce has called for the referendum, we received the technical criteria of the TSE to clarify questions 1, 2 and 3. We will make the necessary adjustments to the questions and send them to the TCP first thing on Monday morning, as established by the procedure in these cases. The fourth question has been discarded.“

Questions 2 and 3 refer to future of the gasoline and diesel subsidy, respectively, so it is put to the population for consideration if they agree to maintain the subsidy to both fuels mentioning that this has negative effects on the economy of the country.

Question 4 concerned the expansion of the membership of the Chamber of Deputies, which currently stands at 130 legislators, taking into account the population census that was carried out in March this year and whose results should be published this month.

The TSE said that question 1 only met the criterion of impartiality in its drafting, questions 2 and 3 lack clarity, precision and impartiality, while 4 “does not correspond to a referendum on presidential initiative”.

On the other hand, Justice Minister Iván Lima, said on his social networks that the necessary adjustments will be made to the three questions to send them on Monday “first thing” to the Constitutional Court.

The procedure for holding the referendum must be approved before 31 August, since the law stipulates that the presidential decree must be convened three months in advance.

The executive expects that the referendum will take place on 1 December, when elections for the judiciary are also scheduled to be held and judges of the country’s high courts will be elected.