Three Strikes

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Bolivia’s constitutional court barred former President Evo Morales from running again for office, a move that could intensify the ongoing political crisis between the leftist leader and his former ally, President Luis Arce, Al Jazeera reported.

The verdict – made public over the weekend – reaffirmed another court’s verdict in 2023 which ruled that presidents were limited to serving only two terms, irrespective of whether the terms were consecutive.

Morales, Bolivia’s first indigenous leader, led the South American country between 2006 and 2019 for three terms. After serving two terms, a court ruling allowed him to run for a third time because his first term preceded a constitutional revision limiting terms, according to Reuters.

He attempted to run for a fourth term in the 2019 elections, but later fled the country after mass protests erupted over allegations of electoral fraud.

Morales returned to Bolivia after Arce won the presidency in 2020. But the two leaders have been butting heads since Morales’ return over control of the governing Movement Toward Socialism party (MAS).

Both have been vying to be the MAS candidate as the country prepares for elections next year.

Morales’ lawyer called the decision politically motivated, adding that they would take up the matter with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

The ruling comes amid weeks of political tensions and mass protests by Morales’ supporters, who have blocked roads, taken soldiers hostage and called for Arce to resign. The demonstrations began after Bolivian prosecutors filed statutory rape charges against the former leftist president over his alleged relationship with a 15-year-old girl while in office.

Morales has denied the allegations and has recently accused the government of attempting to assassinate him in late November.

Officials responded by accusing Morales of staging an attack on himself, claiming that shots were fired at his car only after he allegedly tried to evade a police checkpoint.