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Exit polls have suggested that Evo Morales’ left party has made a surprising political comeback in Bolivia’s presidential elections, although an official result has yet to be obtained.
Two private polls projected that Luis Arce, the candidate of Morales’s Movement for Socialism (Mas), had obtained more than 50% of the votes on Sunday’s ballot, and his closest rival, former centrist president Carlos Mesa, received around 30.%.
Arce, a former Morales finance minister, claimed victory on a late-night broadcast from La Paz. “We have regained democracy and above all, we have regained hope,” said the 57-year-old UK-educated economist, widely known as Lucho.
Arce vowed to end the uncertainty that has plagued his bitterly divided nation since October 2019, when highly controversial vote manipulation claims against his party resulted in massive street protests, the presidential election was canceled and Morales was ousted from the country by security forces in what his supporters call a racist right-wing coup.
“We will govern for all Bolivians … we will bring unity to our country,” said Arce.
Celebratory fireworks resounded around La Paz as news of the anticipated victory spread.
Morales, who has overcome the repetition of the elections despite living in exile in Argentina, acclaimed “A resounding victory” for his party. “Sisters and brothers: the will of the people has prevailed,” tweeted Bolivia’s first indigenous president, a key member of Latin America’s left-wing pink tide that ruled from 2006 until its dramatic fall last year.
Even Morales’s nemesis, right-wing interim president Jeanine Áñez, admitted that the left had prevailed. “We still do not have the official count, but the data we do have shows that Mr. Arce [has] … He won the elections. I congratulate the winners and ask them to govern with Bolivia and democracy in mind ”, Áñez. tweeted.
Leaders of the Latin American left, hoping that Arce’s apparent triumph will help revive their fortunes, celebrated the result.
“Long live the Bolivian people! Long live democracy! ” tweeted Gleisi Hoffmann, president of the Brazilian Workers Party (PT).
Venezuela’s authoritarian leader, Nicolás Maduro, tweeted: “A great victory! United and conscious, the Bolivian people have used the votes to defeat the coup that they carried out against our brother Evo ”.
If confirmed, the victory would represent a sensational political struggle for Mas, who was reeling last year when its leader was forced to flee the country after trying to secure an unprecedented fourth term as president.
An exit poll suggested that Arce had achieved a resounding victory, winning the majority in five of Bolivia’s nine departments. The poll indicated that Arce had obtained more than 65% of the votes in La Paz, 63% in Cochabamba, 62% in Oruro and 51% in Potosí.
It may take several days before the official result is confirmed. By Monday morning the electoral authorities said that with about 15% of the votes counted, 34% had gone to Arce and almost 44% to Mesa.
Opponents of Mas claim that Arce is little more than a puppet to the former Bolivian president in exile, whom they suspect will now seek to return home. But Arce sought to publicly distance himself from Morales during the campaign, and on Monday his allies said the man who will become Bolivia’s next president was in debt to no one.
“Categorically, Evo will not interfere in the government of brother Luis Arce,” said David Apaza, leader of Mas in El Alto, a city in the highlands above La Paz.
“Comrade Evo Morales in his time was the vital element, the main protagonist … [But] Now we believe that our colleague should rest, while Brother Luis Arce takes the initiative ”, added Apaza.
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