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Socialist candidate leads Bolivia voting
(AP)
Updated: 2005-12-19 08:43 Morales, 46, has promised to reverse years of sometimes violent U.S.-backed
efforts to eradicate coca fields. Bolivia is the world's third-largest grower of
coca, a plant that has traditional, legal uses among the country's Indians but
also is used to make cocaine.
The Aymara Indian street activist on Sunday also referred to his status as a
symbol for many of Bolivia's long-downtrodden Indians, a majority in this
country of 8.5 million people.
"I am the candidate of those despised in Bolivian history, the candidate of
the most disdained, discriminated against," he said after working through a
crowd of admirers 錕斤拷 some of whom rushed forward to kiss him 錕斤拷 before voting at a
decrepit basketball court in the village school.
He compared the struggle of his Movement Toward Socialism party to those of
Indian leaders who fought Spanish conquerers, as well as to the independence
hero Simon Bolivar and socialist icon Ernesto "Che" Guevara.
Eduardo Gamarra, a Bolivian political expert, said Morales' bid to become the
latest South American leftist to win election was fueled by support that went
undetected in pre-election projections. Many Indians blame the country's
free-market policies for enriching white elite at the expense of the majority
poor.
"I think there were people who didn't want to say openly that they wanted to
vote for Evo Morales," said Gamarra, head of the Latin American studies
department at Florida International University.
Bolivian presidential candidate Evo Morales of
the Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) party kisses a baby as he visits a
polling station in Cochabamba, central Bolivia, December 18, 2005.
[Reuters] | Quiroga, 45, said earlier Sunday he
would respect the decision of lawmakers and hoped that the congressional process
would not lead to the sort of crippling street protests Morales had led in the
past.
Without mentioning Morales by name, Quiroga added: "What one has to avoid is
that one of the sides tries to air its differences through aggression, through
sticks and stones."
Quiroga served as an interim president from 2001 to 2002. He has said he
would sell Bolivia's vast natural gas reserves at higher prices and improve
infrastructure, education and health care.
Quiroga's spokesman declined to comment on the exit polls, but said the
conservative candidate was not yet ready to concede Sunday night.
The spokesman, Hernan Terrazas, also noted that Quiroga's forces were on
track to gain a majority in the Senate and a strong showing in the House.
Bolivian presidential hopeful Jorge Quiroga
waves after voting at Bolivia's general elections, in La Paz.
[AFP] | In the five presidential elections since 1985, congress has passed over the
first place candidate twice. Parties usually bargain to get the votes needed to
win 錕斤拷 making the support of the centrist third-place candidate, Samuel Doria
Medina, crucial. He has said he would support the first-place candidate if he
wins by at least 5 percentage points.
Hundreds of international monitors made it one of the mostly closely watched
elections in the country's history, and Sunday's voting was conducted under
heavy police guard.
The winner starts a five-year term on Jan. 22 as Bolivia's fourth president
since August 2002, succeeding caretaker President Eduardo Rodriguez, who was
appointed by Congress on June 8, two days after street protests ended the
18-month administration of Carlos Mesa.
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