# Bolivia court bars Evo Morales from running again
On 2024-11-09, Bolivia’s constitutional court barred former president Evo Morales from running for elected office, preventing him from contesting the country’s 2025 presidential election. The ruling also reaffirmed a previous court order saying a president may serve no more than two terms, whether consecutive or not.
The decision is a major blow to Morales, Bolivia’s first Indigenous president and one of its most polarising political figures. He led the country from 2006 to 2019 and remained popular for years, but he also tried to bypass the constitution and seek a fourth term. That earlier effort, and the crisis that followed, is part of why the court’s latest ruling lands with so much force.
The packet says the ruling came after a parliamentarian asked for clarification of the December 2023 decision. That makes the latest judgment less of a sudden surprise than a formal tightening of an already existing legal barrier. Still, the practical effect is decisive: Morales cannot run in next year’s election.
The political context around the ruling is highly charged. Morales supporters have been protesting for about a month, blocking roads, taking soldiers hostage and calling for President Luis Arce to resign. Prosecutors also charged Morales with statutory rape over an alleged relationship with a 15-year-old girl while in office, an accusation he denies and says is politically motivated.
Tensions worsened further after Morales accused the government of an attempted assassination in late October. The Arce administration replied that Morales had staged the incident himself. None of that is resolved by the court decision, but the ruling makes the broader conflict even more asymmetric by removing Morales from the ballot before the campaign begins.
The effect on Bolivia’s political system could be substantial. Opposition legislator Marcelo Pedrazas said the ruling ushered in a new era of politics and described the 2025 election as one without Morales on the ballot. That is not just a slogan: it points to the end of an era in which Bolivia’s politics were repeatedly shaped by whether Morales could return.
Legislators loyal to Morales responded with chaos in Congress, shouting and throwing flowers before Arce’s yearly address and forcing him to deliver the speech from the presidential palace. That incident shows how the court ruling sits inside a wider confrontation between institutions, party factions and street mobilisation.
For now, the court has drawn a legal boundary around Morales’s ambitions. Whether that reduces instability or simply shifts the conflict into new forms will depend on how his supporters, rivals and state institutions respond in the months ahead.
The decision lands in the middle of a larger struggle over who gets to define Bolivia’s political future: the courts, the ruling bloc or the movement built around Morales. By blocking his candidacy now, the court removes one possible source of uncertainty but does not end the confrontation around him. Supporters still have the streets, Congress remains contentious and the election year is only beginning, which means the ruling may settle the ballot question without settling the deeper crisis.
*Event date: 2024-11-09.*
