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Bolivian election as early as next year, Morales says

President Evo Morales said Bolivia could hold presidential elections as early as next year once an assembly finishes rewriting the Andean nation's constitution.

If the Constituent Assembly "finishes this year there has to be a new election, so that there could be a new president," Morales said on Friday while speaking to a crowd of schoolteachers in the eastern city of Warnes.

The proposed constitution written by the assembly would be put to a national referendum, set for December of this year at the earliest. Once the new constitution is in place, Bolivians should return to the polls to choose a new president, Morales said.

Many in Bolivia expect the Morales' supporters in the assembly to propose abolishing the current rule limiting presidents to a single five-year term. Regardless, calling a new presidential election next year could give Morales a shot at a fresh term under the new charter.

"We elected municipal, state and national authorities have only a short time, and we must take advantage of that short amount of time to serve the people," Morales said on Friday, implying the elections would be for all levels of government.

Morales has battled publicly with several of Bolivia's opposition state governors, and new nationwide elections could remove them from office -- or give voters a chance to endorse some of the president's most vocal critics.

But MAS officials seemed willing to take the chance, saying the polls were necessary to complete efforts to "re-found" Bolivia.
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