LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) – Bolivians waited nervously for the results of Sunday’s high-stakes presidential election, when a slow vote count of the authorities was preceded by Evo Morales and the hand-picked candidate was declared the winner. Canceled ballot of the year in which the Left leader resigned and left the country.
Officials said more than six hours after polling closed, barely %% of all ballot boxes were counted. Adding to the conspiracy, the release of two exit polls has been halted after private voters said they did not trust their own survey results.
Morales, who resigned after allegations of fraud and violence in last year’s polls, broke the silence by declaring former economics minister Luis Arsene the winner. A quick count of polling stations sampled by Voter Sieg Mori revealed that Ars had 5% of the vote, the top finisher of four Rs 1 crore candidates compared to 1% of previous President Carlos Mesa.
“The victory for the movement for socialism has come,” Morales said in a brief commentary on Argentina’s deportation. “Lucho will be our president.”
Preliminary official results, which included voters at Bolivian foreign embassies, favored Mesa, the strongest of a number of conservative candidates in an effort to restore socialist rule. Mesa, a former journalist and historian, was second at 52% and Ars at 32%.
To win the first round, a candidate needs more than 50% of the vote with a lead of at least 10 percentage points over the second place candidate. A runoff vote, if necessary, will be held on November 28.
Bolivians have long been accustomed to the quick preliminary results of presidential elections. But following allegations of vote rigging and violent protests last year, newly established election officials are appealing for patience, reminding voters that they have five days to declare the winner.
“These are the days that every one of us needs to mature,” interim President Jeanne Zed said after the polls closed after a peaceful, largely event-free turnout.
Bolivia, once one of Latin America’s most politically unstable countries, experienced barely stability under Morles’s rule, the country’s first indigenous president who resigned and was claimed to have fled the country late last year.
Protests over his vote last year and his subsequent resignation sparked a period of unrest in which at least 36 people were killed. Morales called his ouster a coup and has since been ruled by an unelected government.
Sunday’s vote is an attempt to reset Bolivia’s democracy. All the seats of the 136 members of the Legislative Assembly were also elected.
The Washington office on Latin America, a Washington-based human rights advocacy group, said:
Polling had long lines at some polling stations, but polling was peaceful on Sunday with little fuss in past election days. Voters were seen wearing masks and following physical distance restrictions.
The country’s Supreme Electoral Court announced late on Saturday that it had unanimously decided to report a quick preliminary vote when the ballot was counted. The court said it wanted to rely on official calculations by slowing down the uncertainty achieved during the long delay in reporting preliminary results during last year’s election.
Morales, who was banned from running, initially urged his followers to seek refuge in Argentina, saying they should not be provoked into violence. He said, ‘We must never forget that violence produces violence, and with that, we all lose.’
Elections were twice postponed due to the coronavirus epidemic. On a per capita basis, some countries are hit harder than the poor, Bolivia is devastated: out of its 11.6 million people, about 8,400 have died from Covid-19.
Leading the vote is Morales, who led Bolivia from 2006 to 2019 and was a key figure in a group of left-wing leaders who held power in much of South America. Following his ouster, the election authorities also banned him from running for president or senate.
Morles chose Ars, who oversaw the broader economic boom, as if his movement was in favor of the Towards Socialist Party. The victory won by the party will be seen as a victory for the left in Latin America.
The childhood Lama Herder, who became the leader of the Coca Producers Union, remained very popular in Morales, while overseeing economic growth driven by exports, which led to poverty reduction during most of his reign. But support was waning due to his reluctance to step down, growing authoritarian influence and a series of corruption scandals.
He set aside the public vote that set the deadline, and participated in the October 2019 presidential vote, in which he clearly claimed victory. But the long pause in reporting results displayed suspicions of fraud and nationwide protests.
When police and military leaders suggested he leave, Morales resigned and left the country.
Senator Jeanne Aze, a staunch senator, declared herself interim president and was accepted by the courts. His administration, despite the lack of a majority in Congress, will help fuel special, more unrest and polarization while reversing its policies, trying to take legal action against Morales and key allies.
He was dropped as a candidate in Sunday’s presidential election after falling behind in the polls. Mesa, a former journalist and historian who ruled Bolivia in 2003 following the resignation of former President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, took action amid widespread protests.
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Joshua Goodman, an Associated Press writer in Madeleine, Colombia, contributed to this report.
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