BOLIVIA:
Disenfranchised 2.5 Million Soon to Have the Vote
By Bernarda Claure

LA PAZ,  (IPS) - Bolivia's lower house of Congress is working hard to approve a draft law that would grant citizens living abroad the right to vote in time for next year's referendum on the new constitution being drafted by a constituent assembly.

The aim is to pass the law before the end of the month, and it may be possible thanks to an unusual consensus between lawmakers of the leftwing ruling Movement to Socialism (MAS) and the rightwing opposition. Under the new law, both legal and undocumented emigrants would be able to vote in Bolivian elections.

"We believe that everyone, legal or illegal, should be included. The judicial link between the country and Bolivian citizens remains in effect wherever they may be found," the chairman of the Chamber of Deputies constitution committee, Rodrigo Ibáñez of the rightwing PODEMOS party, told IPS.

The parliamentary debate is moving forward in coordination with the National Electoral Court (CNE) and the Foreign Ministry, despite a few vague aspects of the draft law.

One of them is how to draw up voter registration lists without excluding undocumented immigrants, who are widely scattered and difficult to locate.

The Bolivian Chapter of the Inter-American Platform for Human Rights, Democracy and Development estimates that more than 2.5 million Bolivians are living abroad. The population of Bolivia is 9.6 million.

The United States and Spain are the leading destinations, with approximately 300,000 Bolivian immigrants each. They are followed by Argentina, home to more than 250,000, according to statistics from the Strategic Research Programme of Bolivia (PIEB), which lists Brazil in fourth place, with 200,000 Bolivian immigrants, most of whom live in Sao Paulo, Brazil's largest city.

Although the equivalent of more than 25 percent of the population is living abroad, this is one of the few nations in Latin America whose citizens residing outside of the country's borders cannot vote. A similar case is that of Uruguay, where 16 percent of the population has emigrated, but whose citizens abroad cannot cast their ballots.

The draft law would give all Bolivians over 18 the right to vote in referendums or general elections, wherever they may be living, whether temporarily or permanently.

The right to cast an absentee ballot has been a demand of the Bolivian community in Argentina since before the 2005 elections won by President Evo Morales, the first-ever indigenous president in this country where more than 60 percent of the population is indigenous.

But in the frenzy of the election campaign, the issue was forgotten, until the governing MAS introduced a bill in Congress last year.

The move immediately drew loud criticism. PODEMOS accused Morales of playing the immigration card with a view to reelection in 2009, and to get a new "tailor-made" constitution approved by referendum. But as time passed, support for the measure grew.

René Pereira, director of the governmental National Population Council (CONAPO), said the vote abroad would provide an opportunity to "identify emigrants, not for the purpose of persecution or deportation, but in order to protect them by designing public policies."

Bolivian Ombudsman Waldo Albarracín told IPS that the initiative has to do with the rights of citizens, and is aimed at "keeping alive the ties between those who are living abroad and their homeland. If emigrants are allowed to vote, they will feel a greater commitment to democracy."

The bill's sponsors are studying practical ways to implement the measure, especially in Argentina, which has long been a traditional destination for Bolivians seeking a better life and to escape poverty in their country, South America's poorest.

Sacha Llorenti, deputy minister for social movements, travelled to Buenos Aires in May to study mechanisms for drawing up a list of emigrants in the Bolivian consulate in the Argentine capital.

The list, said Llorenti, would be based on documents valid within Bolivian territory (identity cards, passports or military service certificates). There is also a possibility that the Argentine government will hand over the voter registration lists drawn up for the Buenos Aires municipal elections, he added.

In Argentina, foreigners can vote in local elections as long as they are legal residents and have lived there for a minimum of three years. However, a large part of the Bolivians living in Argentina are undocumented.

Ërika Strauss, in charge of gender affairs at Bolivia's Foreign Ministry, declined to confirm this information when asked by IPS.

But Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca told the state-run Agencia Boliviana de Información news agency that progress had been made in that direction.

"The government wants citizens living abroad to be able to exercise their right to vote in the approval of the new constitution next year," he said, reporting on discussions with neighbouring countries like Peru and Brazil.

Citizens abroad would vote in Bolivian embassies or consulates or other locales where voting stations are set up for the purpose.

Indenilso Bortolotto, a Catholic priest who is the national coordinator of the Pastorate of Human Mobility in the Bolivian bishops' conference, said the specific mechanisms for implementing the overseas vote were merely a practical question.

"This is a process, and we have to begin by seeking the support of institutions with experience in this matter," he told IPS. "I don't know if Bolivia is prepared, but at some point, we have to take the leap."

Bortolotto, who has experienced similar processes in other countries of Latin America, said the draft law is a chance for Bolivia to reaffirm its democratic credentials.

He stressed, however, that the measure should not merely be focused on a political need for votes, but on the possibility of maintaining closer ties between the Bolivian state and citizens residing abroad.

After all, he said, "they are still Bolivians. If the country benefits from their remittances, I don't see why attention shouldn't be given to the discrimination and human rights abuses and other problems that they suffer."

According to a study commissioned by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Bolivians abroad sent home 860 million dollars in remittances last year.