BOLIVIA VOTES ON NEW CONSTITUTION - Jan 25, 2009

here's are a very good article from Democracy Center about the march and rally that led to Congress agreeing on a date for a referendum on the new Constitution.

*Morales and Opposition Agree to a January 25 Vote on New Constitution*

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Just before 1pm – before a crowd 100,000 strong, that packed Plaza Murillo so tightly that even elbow room was scarce – President Evo Morales signed into law a measure setting a January vote on his party's embattled proposal for a new constitution.

Approval of the law caps a process that began more than two years ago with election of delegates to a constitution-writing Constituent Assembly. That process ran through a national battle over how many votes should be required to approve it; violence over demands by Sucre that it be named the country's capital; a political showdown in a voter referendum last August; and finally a week of violence in September in Pando and Santa Cruz that left more than 30 people dead.

The vote by Congress today was supported by more than 2/3 of its members and by Morales' MAS party along with the three major parties of the opposition, PODEMOS, UN, and MNR. The vote on the constitution is set for January 25, 2009.

read the rest here: http://democracyctr.org/blog/