Bolivians were voting yesterday to elect an assembly that will rewrite the Constitution, a document President Evo Morales hopes will allow him to further overhaul the Andean nation's government and economy.
Morales, the country's first Indian president, has promised to "re-create Bolivia" with a constitution that will empower the majority Indian population, long a poor and politically marginalized underclass.
The main opposition party is making Morales' close relationship with leftist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez the central issue, saying Chavez is directing the constitution process from behind the scenes.
Bolivians will elect 255 delegates to the assembly, which will begin its work Aug. 6. They have six months to a year to retool the Constitution.
Two-thirds of the body must approve the changes, which then must be endorsed in a nationwide referendum.
No polls have been conducted, but the president's Movement Toward Socialism party, or MAS, is favored to win a majority. Morales took office five months ago after winning the presidency by a historically wide margin and he remains highly popular.
While the government has used decrees to advance some of its goals, such as nationalizing natural gas on May 1, it wants the Constitution to enshrine its accelerated transfer of state-owned land to peasants and the seizing of unproductive lands.
Morales' party, which includes landless peasants, coca growers and middle-class intellectuals, wants to give civic movements the power to vet government spending and to guarantee access to free health care.
The president asked his supporters to identify political enemies at his final campaign rally on Thursday night.
"I need the support of the people to confront provocation, aggression. The foreign companies are not sleeping; the bourgeoisie that democracy pushed out is still organizing to turn us back," Morales told thousands of supporters as fireworks exploded overhead.
The main opposition party, Podemos, favors switching Bolivia to a parliamentary system, weakening the presidency in a country that has seen 189 coups d'etat since became independent in 1825.
Podemos would also introduce direct elections for more political offices and increase prison terms for violent criminals.
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