Recall Vote in Bolivia

Submitted by fyl on 11 May, 2008 - 06:15.
Bloomberg reports that the Bolivian senate has cleared the way for a recall vote of the Morales government within the next three months. Ominous as this may sound, it is Morales who wants the vote.
Morales, a 48-year-old labor union activist who took office in January 2006, is seeking the fresh vote to offset a drive for regional autonomy by opposition prefects in the resource-rich eastern provinces of Santa Cruz, Tarija, Beni, Pando and Cochabamba.

For a usano, this is rather "foreign" but, thinking about it, the idea of a vote of confidence of the current government is used. It is rather clear that what Morales has been doing is trying to make a major change in the way Bolivia is governed and recent history of the country certainly shows that some major change was needed. The fact that he has served as president for over two years is almost an anomaly in recent Bolivian history.

It makes me wonder what different decisions might be made by the Ortega government (or, probably not more interesting but certainly more significant, the Bush government) if the idea of a vote of confidence was lurking.

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Every money bill in Canada

Submitted by arlington on 11 May, 2008 - 10:30.

Every money bill in Canada is a confidence vote in parliament, not requiring a national referendum but, still requiring the governing party to be sure they have majority support in parliament. Currently, that they have a minority conservative government (and both the opposition liberals and the ruling conservatives can't be assured of an electoral win should the vote fail) neither side wants to be seen to be forcing an election through an unpopular piece of opposition. Even, in our democracy, elections walk a fine line between being a waste of taxpayer money and being a necessity of government. I hope Morales is assured of his victory and has the needed support.