La Paz, 25 January (ABI) — The new Political Constitution of the State (CPE) was approved this Sunday with 61.96% of the votes in the constitutional referendum, according to the exit poll results broadcast by Televisión Boliviana (TVB), Channel 7.
The No vote, on the other hand, obtained 36.52%. Blank and null votes together constituted 1.51%.
The Yes vote triumphed in six departments: La Paz, Cochabamba, Oruro, Potosí, Tarija, and Pando.
Meanwhile, the No vote prevailed in three departments: Santa Cruz, Beni, and Chuquisaca.
Based on comparative departmental data, the unofficial results for the Yes and No votes show the following differences:
The margin of victory was the largest in Potosí: 78.97% said Yes and 20.92% No.
The margin of victory was also huge in La Paz, with 78.41% voting Yes versus 20.46% No.
In Cochabamba, those who voted Yes added up to 64.83% and those who voted No 35.07%.
The voters who supported Yes constiuted 63.52% in Oruro; the No supporters there were 29.17%.
One of the surprises was found in Tarija, where Yes won with 52.84% against 43.34% for No.
Another surprising unofficial result, despite the narrow margin, emerged in Pando, with 45.87% for Yes versus 44.40% for No.
The text of the new constitution was rejected by the largest margin in Santa Cruz, with 60.23% of the votes for No against 39.35% for Yes.
Beni registered the second largest margin in favor of No, with 55.58%, relative to 37.34% for Yes.
Chuquisaca was the third best department for the No camp, with 51.00%, against 46.04% for Yes.
According to an announcement of the National Electoral Council (CNE), the final official results of the constitutional referendum will be available in ten days.
The original article “TVB: El Sí gana con el 61,96%” appeared in the Web site of Agencia Boliviana de Información on 25 January 2009. Translation by Yoshie Furuhashi (@yoshiefuruhashi | yoshie.furuhashi [at] gmail.com).