The Bolivian Constitution and its Reforms

MABB © ®

There is always some useful information about Bolivia to be found in the website of the electoral court (CNE). In their efforts to educate the citizens about the democratic process, they bring out different publications. For example, the brought out this brochure explaining what the vote in January 25 means. In it one can find the above graph listing all 16 constitutions in Bolivia's history. Very useful little graph.

Here are the texts of the current constitution (1967) and the "new" constitution (2008).

In addition, they explain what kind of reforms were those in 1994 and 2004.

The reforms in 1994 included:

1. The state was denominated "multi-cultural and multi-ethnic"
2. Created the Consejo de la Judicatura (Judicial Council, the entity in charge of overseeing the Judicial branch
3. Created the Constitutional Tribunal (Constitutional Court)
4. Created the Defensor del Pueblo (Ombudsman)
5. Introduced the Diputados Uninominales (single district Deputees)

The reforms in 2004 included:

1. Introduced the referendum
2. Introduced the citizen legislative initiative
3. Introduced the constitutional assembly
4. Introduced the possibility that agrupaciones ciudadanas (citizens' groups) and pueblos indigenas (indigenous groups) could participate in elections

Also, one can find a brief historical overview of the constitutions, the constitutional assembly and the use of referendum in Bolivia.

Here is a list of links for the corresponding constitutional reform laws.

2005	Law Nr. 3089 (July 6, 2005)
2004	Law Nr. 2631 (February 20, 2004
1995	Law Nr. 1615 (February 6, 1995) in accordance with Congress
1994	Law Nr. 1585 (August 12, 1994)

2002	Law Nr. 2410 (August 8, 2002) necessity for reform
1993	Law Nr. 1473 (April 1, 1993) necessity for reform

One question remains: were the 2002 reforms carried out or not? I found conflicting information on it.