SUPPORTERS of former Bolivian president Evo Morales called for rallies to block major highways today until he is given approval to stand again.

Tahuichi Tahuichi of Bolivia’s Supreme Electoral Council said on Monday that it will not register Mr Morales’s candidacy because the deadline had passed.

Mr Morales’s supporters, who include huge numbers of indigenous Bolivians, say this contradicts a ruling from the Departmental Constitutional Court of La Paz, which ordered the electoral authorities to revisit the decision not to allow Mr Morales’s new National Bolivian Action Party (Pan-Bol) to register candidates.

Mr Tahuichi says the court order means the electoral council must issue new reasoning for its decision, but doesn’t oblige it to reopen the window for nominations.

The battle over Mr Morales’s candidacy has split the left-wing Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) party, which he had led as Bolivian president from 2006-19, in two. The former leader was overthrown in a US and British-backed military coup after winning re-election in late 2019, and fled to Mexico during the year-long rule of the army-appointed Jeanine Anez.

When the MAS’s mass mobilisations forced new elections, he was unable to stand, with his former finance minister Luis Arce doing so in his stead.

The two have since fallen out, with Mr Morales accusing his successor of blocking a fair contest to be MAS candidate at the next election and later of deploying violent state repression against his supporters. Recently, Mr Arce announced he would not stand himself for re-election.