Bolivia’s Morales has narrow lead in term-limit referendum

BOLIVIA: President Evo Morales is on track to win a referendum that will ask Bolivians whether the two-term limit for the head of state should be lifted, but with enough voters still undecided the measure could fail, an opinion poll showed on Tuesday.

The nationwide Equipos Mori survey showed 41 percent of respondents favoured allowing Morales, a former coca farmer and the country’s first indigenous leader, to run for re-election, with 37 percent against.

The poll, the first to be published this year ahead of the Feb 21 referendum, showed eight percent of respondents were undecided while 11 percent declined to say which way they intended to vote.

Morales is a prominent member of South America’s weakening leftist bloc and is already in his third term, made possible after the courts ruled his first term preceded a constitutional rewrite and should not be counted.

A "yes" win would hand Morales the opportunity to extend his brand of "indigenous socialism" under which he has nationalised key industries including oil and gas to finance welfare programmes that have slashed poverty, and build roads and schools.