With his stunning victory margin in Bolivia's presidential race, Evo Morales can claim more popular support than any president since democracy was restored in the Andean nation two decades ago.
The president-elect, an Aymara Indian who rose to prominence as a coca growing union leader, had 54.3 percent of the vote on Wednesday with 93 percent of polling places tallied, according to official returns. Turnout averaged almost 85 percent, much higher than in previous Bolivian elections, the electoral court said.
His outright majority in the eight-man race means Morales will be the first president since Bolivia returned to democratic rule in 1982 to be directly elected at the ballot box, with no need for congress to choose. He also would the first Indian president the 180-year history of Bolivia, which has an Indian majority.
PHOTO: AFP
Nearly 30 Mexican Indian groups on Wednesday sent a letter congratulating Morales, saying his victory was a historic triumph for Indians across the Americas that "lifts the spirits of out people."
The unexpected strength of his victory is one reason why widely held fears of post-electoral chaos have dissipated. Even Fitch Ratings, an international credit rating agency, kept Bolivia's credit rating unchanged Wednesday, saying Morales' government might have a greater degree of legitimacy than its recent predecessors and therefore lead to better governance.
Morales' supporters lack majority control in Bolivia's House and Senate, where many of the seats are still controlled by right-wing parties. But his wide victory should give him leverage with Bolivia's political and business elite as he makes the transition from a leader of street protests to his nation's standard-bearer, analysts say.
"If the opposition parties are seen as not being constructive and blocking everything Morales tries to do that would not be in their own interests," said Michael Shifter, vice president for policy at the Washington-based think tank Inter-American dialogue.
"I think that they initially would have to be pretty cooperative, recognizing that Morales has a very broad and impressive mandate," he said.
The National Electoral Court isn't expected to formally declare Morales the winner until all the votes are counted. But his victory margin has consistently increased as ballots arrive from his strongholds in remote areas of the country.
His conservative rival, Jorge Quiroga, conceded defeat after finishing with just 28.6 percent, and Bolivia's caretaker president is already organizing a transition team in anticipation of Morales' inauguration on Jan. 22.
Morales, 46, who turned to coca growing after tending llamas as a young boy, insists his government will fight drug trafficking while preserving a legal market for coca in Bolivia. People in the Andes chew coca to stave off hunger, make it into tea or use it as medicine.
also see stories:
Rhetoric aside, Morales must deliver
More of the same from Brazil's PT
TIT-FOR-TAT: The arrest of Filipinos that Manila said were in China as part of a scholarship program follows the Philippines’ detention of at least a dozen Chinese The Philippines yesterday expressed alarm over the arrest of three Filipinos in China on suspicion of espionage, saying they were ordinary citizens and the arrests could be retaliation for Manila’s crackdown against alleged Chinese spies. Chinese authorities arrested the Filipinos and accused them of working for the Philippine National Security Council to gather classified information on its military, the state-run China Daily reported earlier this week, citing state security officials. It said the three had confessed to the crime. The National Security Council disputed Beijing’s accusations, saying the three were former recipients of a government scholarship program created under an agreement between the
Sitting around a wrestling ring, churchgoers roared as local hero Billy O’Keeffe body-slammed a fighter named Disciple. Beneath stained-glass windows, they whooped and cheered as burly, tattooed wresters tumbled into the aisle during a six-man tag-team battle. This is Wrestling Church, which brings blood, sweat and tears — mostly sweat — to St Peter’s Anglican church in the northern England town of Shipley. It is the creation of Gareth Thompson, a charismatic 37-year-old who said he was saved by pro wrestling and Jesus — and wants others to have the same experience. The outsized characters and scripted morality battles of pro wrestling fit
ACCESS DISPUTE: The blast struck a house, and set cars and tractors alight, with the fires wrecking several other structures and cutting electricity An explosion killed at least five people, including a pregnant woman and a one-year-old, during a standoff between rival groups of gold miners early on Thursday in northwestern Bolivia, police said, a rare instance of a territorial dispute between the nation’s mining cooperatives turning fatal. The blast thundered through the Yani mining camp as two rival mining groups disputed access to the gold mine near the mountain town of Sorata, about 150km northwest of the country’s administrative capital of La Paz, said Colonel Gunther Agudo, a local police officer. Several gold deposits straddle the remote area. Agudo had initially reported six people killed,
SUSPICION: Junta leader Min Aung Hlaing returned to protests after attending a summit at which he promised to hold ‘free and fair’ elections, which critics derided as a sham The death toll from a major earthquake in Myanmar has risen to more than 3,300, state media said yesterday, as the UN aid chief made a renewed call for the world to help the disaster-struck nation. The quake on Friday last week flattened buildings and destroyed infrastructure across the country, resulting in 3,354 deaths and 4,508 people injured, with 220 others missing, new figures published by state media showed. More than one week after the disaster, many people in the country are still without shelter, either forced to sleep outdoors because their homes were destroyed or wary of further collapses. A UN estimate
RSS