Evo Morales Receives 80 Percent Approval Rating

Opinion polls carried out by the Bolivian communications company Tal Cual revealed Sunday that President Evo Morales has a 79.9 percent approval rating amongst 2,250 people surveyed from urban and suburban parts of the country.

The department with the highest approval rating was Cochabamba with 82.8 percent, and Potosi recorded the lowest approval rating with 25 percent. 

This upcoming October, Morales will be seeking his second reelection since 2005. The Bolivian head of state began his presidential reelection campaign on Friday, when he solidified his administration's political platform.

He stated that the three three pillars of the Movement for Socialism's (MAS) policy are based on public investment, economic growth, and recognition of the Bolivian social movements.  

In his inaugural campaign speech, Morales stated, "This is a political movement that has social class, before we had a state without class and a state that represented the enemy of social movements, before the state was seen as the internal enemy of the indigenous movement but now our political movement supports the workers."  

The Bolivian Workers Central (COB) and the Confederation of the Unified Syndicates of Rural Workers of Bolivia, which are two of Bolivia’s largest and most influential trade union organizations, publically endorsed Morales.

These public endorsements are highly significant  due to their sphere of influence over Bolivian public opinion, particularly in the rural areas.

Social and Economic Achievements

Much of Morales´success at the ballot box is tied to his social and political accomplishments. Bolivia has seen a decrease in extreme poverty from 38.2 percent in 2005 to 21.6 percent in 2012. Part of this decline can be attributed to higher wages, which have risen steadily over the last nine years. 

According to International Labor Organization (ILO) reports, the last two years Bolivia has achieved the highest increase in real minimum wage then any other Latin American country. 

Investment in public spending has has risen by over then 500 percent over the last nine years, much of which has been made possible through increase state revenues from Bolivia’s hydro-carbon sector which have increased by 285 percent since 2005. 

Opposition lacks support 

Tal Cual´s pre-election poll's released today showed that Evo Morales holds the majority vote with 49.1 percent, followed by Samuel Doria Medina, the main center-right opposition candidate, with 30.1 percent of the vote.

During his first presidential campaign, Morales promised to promote nationalization, industrialization and anti neo-liberal economic policies. In the 2009 elections, Morales earned 63 percent of the popular vote and vowed to deepen the social economic policies that had been implemented in his first term.