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LA PAZ: Bolivian President Evo Morales announced general elections would be moved up a year-and-a-half to June 2009, a change decried by the opposition as a ploy to keep the ruling socialist government in power.
"I would estimate - and I'll say it up front without the least fear - that (the elections) will be in June," said Morales at a meeting of socialist leaders in the central city of Cochabamba.
The election pledge comes at a time when the Bolivian leader is struggling to maintain authority over rebel governors in eastern Bolivia, who are fighting a draft constitution that seeks to redistribute land and national wealth for the benefit of Bolivia's indigenous majority, which accounts for 60 per cent of the country's 10 million people.
Morales, however, is confident the constitution will be approved in a referendum in December, or soon thereafter, and is optimistic enough to bring the presidential election forward by 18 months.
"The next parliament is going to be an absolute majority, and so implementing the new constitution will be much easier, because there will be no deadlock in the Senate, as we are experiencing now," the president said.
Meanwhile, Morales failed after 10 hours of closed-door talks with four governors to find a solution to the country's recent political upheaval.
Morales and governors from the regions of Santa Cruz, Beni, Tarija and Chuquisaca have received a report from technical working groups who have been trying since September 18 to find a solution to the crisis.
The Bolivian leader has attempted to railroad his reforms through opposition from the eastern governors, who represent a powerful landowning elite of mostly European descent who have been fighting for autonomy and against a new constitution.
Morales and the regional leaders also failed to set a date to resume their dialogue, according to Bolivia's minister for rural development Carlos Romero.
The meeting Sunday - the third between the parties in eight months - was held in the presence of observers from the United Nations and regional organizations.
Morales took office in 2006 with 54 percent voter support, and has been working ever since to solidify the country's backing of socialist reform.
Dialogue froze between the two sides some eight months ago and violence has flared again in recent weeks in the divided country, the poorest in South America, raising fears of civil war.
- AFP/yb
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