The court’s unanimous decision Wednesday upheld an earlier ruling that bans presidents from serving more than two terms. Morales has already served three, and, in 2019, resigned under pressure from the military and went into exile as protests erupted over his bid for an unprecedented fourth term.
Morales returned to Bolivia a year later as the 2020 elections vaulted to power his preferred candidate, President Luis Arce, from his long-dominant Movement Toward Socialism, or MAS, party.
Arce, who announced earlier this week that he would not seek re-election, insisted that the Constitutional Court had disqualified Morales, his mentor-turned-rival, from running in 2025.
But many experts doubt the legitimacy of that decision in a country where political conflicts undermine the courts and presidents have maneuvered to get their allies on the bench.
“The Constitutional Court issues unconstitutional arbitrary rulings at the whim of those in power,” said Morales, who himself reaped the benefits of favorable judges while seeking to run for a fourth consecutive term in 2017.
After Morales lost a referendum seeking to do away with term limits while still in power, the Constitutional Court ruled it would be against Morales’ human rights to stop him from running for another term.
That 2017 ruling allows Morales to register his candidacy, said Oscar Hassentoufel, the president of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal. “Then the tribunal will decide whether he’s eligible or not.”
In defiance of the latest court ruling, Morales called a mass march that marshaled his loyal supporters in the rural tropics. They long have championed the Indigenous coca-grower for transforming the country during his tenure — redistributing Bolivia’s natural gas wealth and seeking greater inclusion for its Indigenous majority.