LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) – Voters in Bolivia have rejected by a slim margin a constitutional amendment that would have let President Evo Morales run for a fourth consecutive term in 2019.
The government’s election website says the vote was 51 percent to 49 percent against the ballot question, with 98.5 percent of the ballots counted.
The outcome of Sunday’s referendum also blocks Vice President Alvaro Garcia from running again.
Morales has during a decade in office helped lift millions out of poverty by more equitably distributing natural gas revenues, spurring the creation of an indigenous middle class.
But his governing leftist party has been buffeted by scandal. The vote closely followed a revelation that Morales may have been personally involved in influence-