Exit polls say Bolivians approve new constitution

LA PAZ (Reuters) - Bolivians approved a new constitution to give the indigenous majority more power and allow leftist President Evo Morales to run for re-election, according to exit polls and a separate quick count.

Two television stations said their exit polls showed the constitution was approved with around 60 percent of the vote on Sunday. A pollster who conducted the quick count for ATB television said the charter won about 55 percent of the vote.

Morales is Bolivia's first indigenous Indian president and has said the new constitution will improve the lives of the impoverished indigenous majority and allow the state to tighten its control over the economy.

He has taken cues from leftist presidents Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Rafael Correa of Ecuador, who have changed their countries' constitutions to extend their rule, tackle inequalities or exert greater control over natural resources.

Morales needed the backing of over 50 percent of Bolivians for the constitution to be approved.

Support was highest in the western highlands where Indians are a majority, while many mixed-race people in the fertile eastern lowlands rejected the charter. Four of Bolivia's nine provinces had a majority "no" vote, according to the exit polls.

Morales, an Aymara Indian who herded llamas as a boy, has boosted government revenues by nationalizing energy, mining and telephone companies since taking office three years ago.

As the country's first indigenous president, he has hailed the constitution as the cornerstone of his agenda to tilt the balance of power in favour of Bolivian Indians after centuries of discrimination and expand the state's role in the natural gas sector.

(Additional reporting by Diego Ore in Chapare; Editing by Fiona Ortiz and Kieran Murray)