Rocking the resident non-citizen vote in Bolivia

Rocking the resident non-citizen vote in Bolivia

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Where do resident non-citizens get to vote?

The Bolivian government recently decided that all foreigners who have lived in the country for at least two years can vote in the upcoming elections (actually, they have to vote, otherwise they can't do any bank transactions or leave the country for a month or so after the election). Is this something that other countries do?

This seems like an especially odd decision from the Morales government, whose support from foreigners is probably lower than it is among Bolivians. It will be interesting to see if and how this change affects the campaigns and the elections.

In other election news, the Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS) candidate in the Beni (a department where they have fairly low approval) is a former Miss Bolivia, which seems like a clever strategy.

February 17, 2010