Bolivia’s Constitutional Court confirmed the ban on a president serving more than two terms, thus ending any possibility for former left-wing president Evo Morales to run in the 2025 elections, AFP and EFE inform on Saturday.
In a decision made public on Friday, which confirms a decision given in December 2023, the Constitutional Court declares that an elective mandate can be exercised “only for two periods, consecutive or not, without the possibility of extension with a third mandate”.
This decision responds to a parliamentary approach, which requested the Court to dispel any doubt on the interpretation of its 2023 decision.
Evo Morales and current president Luis Arce, a former ally and economy minister, are vying for control of the ruling party, as well as the inauguration for the August 2025 presidential election.
Coming to power in 2006, Morales was re-elected for the period 2010-2015, then, by virtue of a constitutional revision denounced by the opposition, for a third term in 2015-2020. He then got the judiciary to declare re-election a fundamental human right and ran for a fourth term for 2020-2025.
However, accused of fraud and under pressure from massive opposition demonstrations, he resigned shortly after the election in November 2019 and took refuge in Mexico, then Argentina, before returning to Bolivia 11 months later.
Evo Morales, a 65-year-old former coca grower, has not yet reacted to the decision of the Constitutional Court. He has repeatedly stated that he is eligible, but that Arce’s government is manipulating the justice system to block his candidacy.
