A BOLIVIAN court ruling that the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) will not be banned from standing in this month’s election does not negate the threat of democracy being crushed again, a Bolivian democracy campaigner says.

Miriam Amancay Colque of the Bartolina Sisa Resistance said the court’s decision on Monday was “very important and testimony to the strength of the MAS,” but “let us remember that many MAS candidates to the plurinational legislative assembly have been disqualified with unjustified excuses. [Former president] Evo Morales is one of them. Former foreign minister Diego Pary is another.

And she pointed to violence right outside the court — right-wing thugs set upon MAS supporters waiting to hear the verdict with baseball bats — as evidence that there is no guarantee the election will be allowed to proceed smoothly.