Bolivia’s Plurinational Constitutional Tribunal (TCP) on Wednesday ruled [judgment, in Spanish] that President Evo Morales [BBC profile] may seek a fourth consecutive term as the country’s president in the 2019 election.

This decision comes almost two years after Morales campaigned for and lost a closely contested referendum [JURIST report] to amend the Bolivian Constitution [text, PDF, Spanish] to allow for indefinite term-limits.

Morales is the first indigenous president to be elected in Bolivia and has been in power since 2006. This is the second time he has been able to dodge the current constitution’s express two-term limit, after the passage of a law [JURIST report] in 2013 permitted him to run for a third term. It was held [JURIST report] that since Morales had already started a term when the constitution was amended, the first term would not retroactively count towards a term-limit.

The TCP, citing the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights [text], agreed with the a href=”http://www.mas-ipsp.bo/direccion-nacional”>Morales’ Movement to Socialism Party [party website, in Spanish] and concluded that restricting elected officials from seeking reelection was a human rights violation because it is ultimately an issue for the people to decide. The ruling of the TCP is final and cannot be appealed. If Morales is able to secure a fourth term, his term will not end until at least 2025.