Bolivians vote on new Morales-backed constitution

President Evo Morales’ quest to transform Bolivia on behalf of its long-suffering indigenous majority is on the line Sunday as voters consider a new constitution that could keep the leftist leader in power through 2014.

Bolivia’s first Indian president says the charter will “decolonize” South America’s poorest country, undoing the influence of its Spanish conquerers. But differences over the document’s indigenous focus and often opaque wording could increase political turmoil in a divided nation where tensions over race and class have recently turned deadly.

“This constitution gives us all the same opportunities, rights, and responsibilities,” Morales told reporters Saturday in La Paz. “The traditional indigenous people, who are poor but many, will unite with the contemporary indigenous people, who are few but rich.”

Yet those “contemporary indigenous” – a euphemism for Morales’ mestizo and white opposition – worry the president’s proposal ignores the country’s rapidly urbanizing population mixing Indian traditions with a new globalized Western identity.

“The constitution’s idea is to make the indigenous no longer invisible,” said historian Fernando Cajias. “But it creates a whole new invisible world” of mixed-race Bolivians.

The proposed charter, expected to pass easily, calls for a general election in December in which Morales could run for a second five-year term.