Bolivia votes for top judges in key test for Morales

Bolivians voted for the first time to choose national judges, in a reform seen as a test for President Evo Morales, which his rightist opposition had called on voters to boycott.

Voter turnout was high, and the first unofficial polling results of the election aimed at bolstering the political clout of the country's indigenous minority are to be announced as of 8 pm local time.

Voting is mandatory in Bolivia, so few blank or spoiled ballots are crucial as Socialist Morales seeks to regain his political footing after damaging protests.

Morales, the Andean country's first president of Indigenous descent, has been hurt by weeks of protests led by poor Indians over his plans to build a $420 million highway through the Amazon, and Sunday's election is seen as a referendum on his presidency.

Bolivia's 5.2 million registered voters were electing the 28 members of the Andean country's four courts with nationwide jurisdiction. Voting booths were open at 8 a.m. local time and most had closed by 4 p.m., according to Bolivian media.

Wilfredo Ovando, president of Bolivia's top electoral authority (TSE), called the vote "one of the most creative acts of Bolivian democracy" as he formally launched voting in La Paz on Sunday.

A sense that the opposition's campaign had undermined Morales' reform drive could intensify pressure on the president after the road protest debacle and massive protests over a planned fuel price hike late last year.

He has billed the first direct election of national judges as "the next step in the refounding of Bolivia." The judges do not represent political parties.

Besides a series of reforms aimed at giving more political power to the country's indigenous people, Morales has also reversed privatizations of the free-market 1990s and strengthening the state's hand in the economy.

Voters must choose members of the country's four national courts from a list of 116 candidates. Half the candidates are women and many are indigenous.

The opposition rejects them because they were picked by the government-controlled Congress. Previously, these judges had been chosen directly by Congress.

The judicial shake-up is the latest in a series of reforms Morales says will help reverse five centuries of discrimination against indigenous peoples in Bolivia, the region's biggest natural gas exporter, which remains dominated by a European-descended elite.

Morales managed to push through a new constitution in 2009, a key demand of the rebellious social groups that toppled two governments between 2003 and 2005.

But he has encountered growing resistance over the last year, facing opposition even within his indigenous support base over the fuel price hike and his plan to build a road that cuts through the TIPNIS indigenous territory and national park.

Opponents have urged voters to scuttle the judicial vote to protest the government's handling of anti-road demonstrations.

"A spoiled ballot paper is a vote in favor of the TIPNIS," opposition lawmaker Roy Moroni said last week. "That is the way to reject these undemocratic elections."