Bolivia: Referendum Coverage on Twitter

As the polls close across Bolivia for the Constitutional Referendum vote, many of the country's users of Twitter have been hard at work sending messages about their experiences from their cities. In order to centralize the information, they are using the #referendum tag.

Throughout the day, many tweeted after returning from their polling place and reporting on the action. Rolando Espinoza (@darkrho) writes about the opposition youth group in Cochabamba, who were present at the school where he voted:



#referendum cbba (Cochabamba) juventud kochala (the youth group) are controlling delegate lists at the Loyola School.

In La Paz, Eliana Quiroz (@e_liana) writes how many are spending the day after performing their civic duty.



Some eat sajta de pollo (chicken dish) and others drink Coca-Cola after voting at the high school in La Paz.

She also posts a photo on Twitpic of her ink-stained finger indicating that she has already voted.

Some voters find themselves far from home on election day. Mario César Señoranis (@mariocesar_bo) of Santa Cruz is currently across the country in the city of La Paz and is unsure whether he can vote:



I am waking up u_u zZzZ … I still don't know how to obtain the voting certificate for the #referendum, I should have voted in scz (Santa Cruz), but I am in lpz (La Paz) 8′(

The site Al Minuto [es] created a special Twitter account @referendum_bo to share links of the news unfolding events and also placed a Cover It Live widget to generate live chat and republication of some tweets.

12 comments

  • sanchotx

    any one have any word on exit polling data?

  • Gracias por mencionarnos, fue la primera experiencia. y se demostro que se puede hacer web 2.0 desde un pais del tercer mundo, nos falta cosas como la plataforma de ushaidi.org para que la gente reporte desde celular.
    Gracias por mencionarnos

  • Eliana

    sanchotx,
    there are some preliminar results on the news, you can find somethinf in http://www.laconstituyente.org/ Covert Live.

  • Eliana

    Eduardo,
    thanks for the post! It was a great experience for the community of twitters in Bolivia to learn how to develop a network to have the coverage of referendum in Bolivia done from our personal points of view. :-)

  • This collective effort has been possible thanks to a joint and virtual understanding of twitters from several countries on this planet. The Bolivia Action Solidarity Network (www.grupoapoyo.org) is a mirror of http://www.laconstituyente.org in the hopes of informing communities trying to closely follow this important instance of Bolivian history. The work done by our Bolivian twitters has been key in keeping thousands of our users informed. Way to go tuiteros in Bolivia!!!

    maqex

  • […] I’ll be analysing more aspects of the new constitution in the upcoming week, here and elsewhere, but in the meantime if you too are interested in nerdishly following the process and outcome of the referendum (and who could blame you!), and you use Twitter (oh, and speak Spanish), then you can keep up with Bolivian netizens involved.. […]

  • […] Global Voices – As the polls close across Bolivia for the Constitutional Referendum vote, many of the country’s users of Twitter have been hard at work sending messages about their experiences from their cities. In order to centralize the information, they are using the #referendum tag. […]

  • Mururata

    Please to form part of the Bolivian Twits network. Twiteros Bolivianos en que departamnetso estan ustedes. Hay alguien en Tarija, Cobija, Oruro.

  • Eliana

    Hola Mururata:
    la comunidad twittera está concentrada en La Paz, Cochabamba, Santa Cruz y Sucre. Al menos, los twitteros que formamos una comunidad o grupo y de los que tenemos conocimiento. Puede que haya alguno que otro aislado. No sabemos de nadie en Tarija, ni en Cobija y el orureño que tenemos radica la mayor parte del tiempo en La Paz aunque tiene actividades en Oruro.
    Te invitamos a unirte en http://www.twitter.com
    Mi nick es e_liana , una vez que hayas ingresado, puedes escribir en la barra de descripción http://www.twitter.com/e_liana, luego presionar el botón follow y de ahí te presento al resto de la comunidad.
    Un saludo,

  • Mururata
    estamos agrupados en twittbo.com
    tu tienes cuenta en twitteÇ?

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