Washington 'deeply concerned' about Bolivia reelection ruling

LA PAZ, Nov 30 (Reuters) - Bolivia on Thursday brushed off criticism from the United States about this week's Constitutional Court decision allowing socialist President Evo Morales to run for a fourth term in 2019.

The U.S. State Department issued a statement saying it was "deeply concerned" by the court ruling, which is final and cannot be appealed.

Groups opposed to Morales' reelection planned a second day of demonstrations. Protesters had broken windows and set office furniture on fire at an elections office in the city of Santa Cruz around midnight on Wednesday before police took them away, television images showed.

Morales, who has been in power since 2006, had previously accepted the results of a referendum in 2016, when 51 percent of voters rejected his proposal to end term limits. He later reversed course, saying that while he was willing to leave office, his supporters were pushing for him to stay.

The U.S. State Department disputed that position.

"Twice in the last decade, the Bolivian people have expressed their opposition to the concept of indefinite re-election for elected officials; first in 2009, through their overwhelming vote in favor of the current constitution, and again in a 2016 referendum, when they rejected an initiative to overturn the constitutional provision that imposes the two-term limit on the president," the department's statement said.

Morales' administration dismissed the criticism. "It looks like they are trying to tell us who our candidates should be," Minister of the Presidency Rene Martinez said on Thursday.

He said right-wing political forces in Bolivia had joined with the United States and the Organization of American States to stop Morales from running again.

In September, his Movement to Socialism party asked the courts to rescind legal limits barring elected authorities from seeking reelection indefinitely.

Morales says his first government did not count under the two-term rule because the term took place under Bolivia's previous constitution. (Reporting by Daniel Ramos and Monica Machicao; Writing by Hugh Bronstein; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)

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