SUCRE (Bolivia): Bolivians sat down a month ago to rewrite their constitution, but disputes and infighting threaten to bog down President Evo Morales’ plan to rebuild the country on indigenous principles.

Bolivia has the highest proportion of indigenous people of any South American country. Morales, a former coca farmer, took office in January as the country’s first Indian president and vowed to end centuries of domination by a European-descended elite.

One of his main election promises was to set up an elected national assembly charged with rewriting the constitution, which was widely viewed as helping institutionalise the bias in favour of the elites. The 255-seat chamber was inaugurated on Aug. 6 — the country’s independence day — but it already looks polarized.

The antagonism between delegates erupted into a fist-fight broadcast on national television recently, and opposition members have failed to show up to some sessions, angered by the ruling party’s plans to declare “an indigenous constitution.”

“These are the symptoms of a fracture that, if it isn’t acknowledged and addressed, could take the country to an irreversible split,” said an editorial in daily La Razon.

Morales’ allies accuse opposition parties representing the country’s mainly white economic elite of divisiveness.

Divisions are even evident at lunchtime in the colonial city of Sucre, where the assembly sits. While Indian delegates lunch on wooden benches in the market, suit-wearing rightist delegates frequent top restaurants.

Political analysts say the early squabbling, much of which centres on how the assembly will vote on changes, is overshadowing the debate about how to transform one of Latin America’s poorest and most unstable nations.

Delegates from Morales’ party aim to enshrine Andean religions in law and reshape the state in line with Indian traditions.

That could mean allowing Indian communities to make democratic decisions and even mete out communal forms of punishment to offenders, though it is unclear how such measures might work alongside the existing justice system.

But so far assembly delegates have even failed to agree on voting rules, whether by simple majority or two-thirds majority, and on whether they should do a complete rewrite, as Morales seeks, or merely patch up the existing constitution.

The assembly missed a deadline at the end of August to reach a deal, although delegates say they are still confident of being able to finish the rewrite during its one-year lifespan.

Giving the assembly the power to define a new legal framework would mean granting it absolute powers — above Congress, the judiciary and Morales himself.

“A de facto coup,” is how rightist opposition party Podemos described Morales’ plans to make the assembly legally omnipotent.

Morales’ party holds 142 seats in the assembly, and Podemos has threatened to withdraw its 60 delegates.

Since Morales took office, demands for autonomy from wealthier provinces have gained strength, especially in the influential economic powerhouse of Santa Cruz.

Representatives of these provinces called a regional strike this week and have threatened the government with establishing their own constitutional assembly if the existing one decides to pass changes with a simple-majority vote.

Assembly Vice President Roberto Aguilar blamed the division on “groups that represent the interests of neo-liberal sectors that have dug Bolivia deeper into poverty.”

However, many Bolivians think Indian delegates lack political experience and are not up to the job.—Reuters