Fred Fuentes
Writing in the Miami Herald, the day after Bolivia's December 5 municipal elections, Tyler Bridges commented: "Bolivians overwhelmingly rejected their traditional political parties in electing 327 mayors ... with the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS), led by an implacable foe of globalisation and of the United States, emerging as the country's biggest political party."
MAS originated in the cocalero movement. With the privatisation of Bolivia's mines in 1985, mass sackings forced former miners to join indigenous Aymara and Quechua peoples in growing coca for a living. In 1995, a congress of cocaleros voted to build a "political instrument" from which came Sovereignty of the Peoples (ASP), which would ultimately run in elections as MAS.
Although final results have not been released, most polls and media reports are saying that MAS has not only dramatically built on the 3% it obtained in the 1999 municipal elections, but also increased on the 20% obtained by Evo Morales, MAS's presidential candidate in the 2002 elections. It seems that MAS will end up with between 25-30% of the vote, although many of the votes from the 280 rural municipalities, MAS's traditional base, have still not been counted.
The municipal elections cover more than 300 municipal mayors and councils, as well as mayors and councils for the Bolivia's 10 departments, which are a little like state governments and control most of the resources.
Although MAS did not win the mayors of any of the 10 major provincial cities, it came second — with around 20% of the vote — in both the capital La Paz, and in El Alto, whose population was decisive in ousting the president during the October 2003 uprising.
MAS almost won in Cochabamba with 31% of the vote, while it gained a councillor in the gas-rich area of Santa Cruz, despite huge opposition from the gas transnationals. Overall, MAS had victories in half of the country's municipalities and will now control a number of important intermediate towns.
On December 6, Prensa Latina reported Morales' comments: "MAS has consolidated itself as a political and democratic instrument at a national level, just as much in the city as in the countryside... and is the clearest demonstration that the nation wants change and to leave behind [the old politics]".
The MAS vote represents a rejection of the neoliberal policies that have ravaged not just Bolivia, but the whole continent. It will bring the struggle of the indigenous peoples who make up 80% of Bolivia's population to centre stage of Bolivian politics.
According to the November 30 Prensa Latina, Morales told MAS's final election rally: "The time is approaching when us Bolivians will be able to govern ourselves, without programs imposed by the IMF and without corruption."
Prensa Latina also noted that Morales "emphasised his solidarity with Cuba and Venezuela and with the anti-neoliberal movements that have been registered in Brazil and other Latin American nations".
MAS refused all state subsidies for the election campaign, arguing that the money should be spent on public education.
MAS was the only national party which made gains in these elections. All the traditional parties — Movement of the Revolutionary Left (MIR), Movement of the National Revolution (MNR), New Republican Force (NFR) and National Democratic Action (ADN) — were almost completely wiped out. Their combined vote declined to just over 10% of the national vote, with MIR controlling one of the main departments and ADN controlling two.
The biggest defeat was reserved for the MNR, the party of ousted president Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, which collapsed to just five councillors across the major 10 departments.
However, for the first time in these elections, 324 citizens' groups and 69 indigenous-peoples' groups participated. These groups, particularly some of the citizens' groups, did well and won the mayor position in six departments.
The best results were reserved for those that had large financial backing, many of which ran ex-members of the traditional parties as candidates. So in La Paz, the candidate from the new formation, Movement Without Fear (MSM), was a former member of MIR and was re-elected with 45% of the vote.
Similarly, in El Alto, where Plan Progress (PP) ran the former mayor Jose Luis Paredea, an ex-MIR member, they won with over 50% of the vote. The mayor candidate who received the highest vote in the elections, Rene Joaquino Cabrera who won in Potosi with 65%, was an NFR member.
Importantly, a number of allies of 2001-02 president Jorge "Tuto" Quiroga won in Cochabamba and El Alto, with candidates of his former party ADN winning two mayors. Another ally of his narrowly won the vote in Santa Cruz, but will not become mayor as the other forces on the council have announced they will block against him.
"Tuto", a former IBM executive, left Bolivia for the US following the 2003 uprising. He remerged on the political scene on September 7, when he announced his resignation from ADN, while not breaking with its politics. This was widely regarded as a manoeuvre to reinvent himself in a climate where the traditional parties were unlikely to regain credibility.
Through some of the new citizen groups he has been able to position himself as the main conservative opposition to Morales in the presidential elections scheduled for 2007, although he still lacks a coherent national organisation.
From 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly, December 15, 2004.
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