The Americas

3.1.2 Bolivia

The current government party, MAS (Movimiento al Socialismo) was established in 2001 as an alliance of social movements, representing indigenous groups, small farmers, organized labour and parts of the Bolivian middle class. MAS forms a reaction to social and economic cleavages that date back to the colonization by Spain in the 16^th century and the prevailing dominance of the Spanish elite over political powers, land and natural resources. In 1952, a Mestizo-led revolution resulted in general voting rights, land reform and the nationalization of tin mines. The (MNR) Revolutionary Nationalist Movement government was deposed in 1964, and until 1982, Bolivia was under military rule. Comprehensive liberal market reforms in the 1980s and 1990s culminated in strong protests, strikes, marches, demonstrations and the loss of faith in traditional political parties. Against this backdrop, the MAS won elections in 2005 on a platform of socialism, nationalization and land reform. Perhaps the most important electoral promise was that of a new constitution to ‘re-establish’ the Bolivian state on a multicultural and multiethnic basis. The new constitution was passed in 2004 in spite of bitter, and at times violent, protests from the opposition due to disagreements over the distribution of income from the oil and gas sector, as well as the issue of regional autonomy.

Bolivia defines itself as a unitary social state based on ‘Pluri-National Communitarian Law’

(Constitution⁴⁹, Article 1). Article 3 states that the Bolivian nation is formed by all Bolivians, the native indigenous nations and peoples, and the inter-cultural and Afro-Bolivian

communities that, together, constitute the Bolivian people. Nations and indigenous peoples are defined as “every human collective that shares a cultural identity, language, historic tradition, institutions, territory and world view, whose existence predates the Spanish colonial invasion” (Constitution, Article 30).

The parliament has two chambers: The Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. The Chamber of Deputies consists of 130 members elected in a Parallel system. 77 are elected from single-member constituencies and the other 53 are elected in a List PR system in multi-single-member constituencies, which constitute the nine ‘departments’⁵⁰. Among the 77 single-member constituencies, there are seven reserved for indigenous peoples and they are apportioned to non-contiguous, rural areas (Constitution, Article 146-147) based upon population data.

Article 147 of the Constitution also has two other requirements:

I. The equal participation of men and women shall be guaranteed in the election of the members of the assembly.

II. Proportional participation of the nations and rural native indigenous peoples shall be guaranteed in the election of members of the assembly.

In order to meet criterion I above, the election law Article 9 prescribes that male and female candidates need to be 'zipped' on the list in the PR race (which means that there will be close to half of each gender on the lists) and the parties need to suggest a man and a woman as

49 As updated per May 2009.

50 The transitional election law of 14 April 2009.

candidate and substitute in each of the single-member constituencies. These two rules will not guarantee that half of the members of chamber are women, since parties winning an odd number of seats may return one more men than women and all the candidates elected from the single-members constituencies may be men. However, the requirements for gender balance are quite far reaching.

The second requirements (II) of proportional participation of the nations and rural native indigenous peoples do not seem to be regulated further by law. There is no specific rule for the composition of the candidate lists in the multi-member constituencies. The only guarantee is the one coming from the seven reserved single-member constituencies.

According to Article 148 of the Constitution, the Senate consists of 36 members with four elected from each of the nine departments. The election is direct and by List PR.

3.1.3 Colombia

Close to 60 percent of the Colombian population is of mixed European-Native American descent as a result of the Spanish colonization of the country. Colombia is a unitary republic with a presidential system. The legislature is bicameral. The House of Representatives consists of 166 directly elected members, out of which 161 are elected from 33 multi-member constituencies corresponding to the departments and district of Bogotá⁵¹ with at least two seats in each. The electoral system is List PR with closed lists.

Article 176 of the constitution provides ethnic minority representation in the House of Representatives. According to the law,⁵² five special representatives are elected in nationwide constituencies, two for the black community and one for each of the groups: indigenous people, political minorities and Colombians abroad. The term political minorities refers to such parties which have tried to stand for elections nationwide but not won any seats⁵³, and the electoral system is FPTP.

Everybody is entitled to vote for the indigenous and black candidates.⁵⁴ According to Duarte, only 0.51 percent of those eligible to vote in the black constituency participated in 2006 (51,443 out of 26,593,271 voters).

The Senate consists of 83 directly elected members, also elected by List PR with closed lists.

In addition to the 83, two seats are earmarked for indigenous communities from one

nationwide constituency (Constitution, Article 171.2), and three in an earmarked constituency for political minorities (Constitution, Article 171.2). Indigenous candidates must have been a traditional leader figure in their communities or have been leaders of an indigenous

organization.

51 The Constitution as last updated November 2008.

52 Law 649 of 27 March 2001.

53 Article 40 of the Law 649 requires those competing for these seats to have nominated candidates in at least 30 percent of the constituencies, not won any seats and not have more than 70 percent of their votes cast in one constituency.

54 This is not obvious from the primary sources available but Duarte 2007, for example, gives a good indication.

In addition to the indigenous quota, Article 112 of the Election Law requires that candidate lists to the Lower House (Cámara de Diputados) must include at least one woman out of every three candidates in the PR part of the election.

3.1.4 Venezuela

Venezuela’s population is mixed, with Spanish, Italian and Portuguese as the main European groups, and indigenous peoples. The Venezuelan republic is unitary with a presidential political system. The legislature is unicameral and has 165 members. Out of these, 110 are elected by FPTP from 87 constituencies, 52 elected on a party list system (two or three deputies per state of Venezuela, depending on population), and 3 seats were reserved for indigenous peoples, with separate rules (Constitution, Article 186). The system is a Parallel system.

According to the Election Law of 12 August 2009 Chapter XV, the three seats reserved for the indigenous are elected from geographical constituencies, one from the west, one from the east and one from the south of the country. Such a constituency may not constitute a

continuous geographical area (Article 179.) The candidate is elected who receives a majority of the valid votes in his region.

All native organizations or communities have the right to nominate native candidates who speak their native language, and who have an established social or political position within the community. The nominating organizations must be legally constituted and must have been in existence for at least three years.

Candidates eligible for election must fulfil one of the following requirements: 1. Been a traditional leader, 2. Had a track record of fighting for cultural indigenous identity, 3. Played an active role in providing benefits for indigenous people, 4. Be a member of a legal indigenous organisation that has been operating for at least three years.

The Article 178 prescribes that those eligible to vote for the ethnic group race have to be registered in a separate voters register.

3.1.5 Main Findings

Ethnic quotas are found in Colombia, Bolivia and Venezuela in the form of earmarked seats for indigenous and other small groups. The violent conflicts in the countries have a political and ideological background. The conditions for indigenous groups have not been unrelated to conflicts but the quotas as such cannot be seen as measures to establish power-sharing between conflicting groups.

3.2 Asia-Pacific