Bolivia’s Foreign Minister Diego Pary
LA PAZ, Oct 23 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The government of Bolivian President Evo Morales has asked the Organization of American States (OAS) to conduct an audit of a binding vote count after preliminary results of Sunday’s presidential election that showed Morales’ winning outright sparked concerns about tampering and violent protests, the country’s foreign minister said.
Foreign Minister Diego Pary said the government would accept the final result of the election and said that it had invited the OAS – an official election observer – and the United States and other foreign governments to “accompany” the binding vote count that is already under way.
“We’re the ones who are most interested in counting the votes of all Bolivians,” Pary told a news conference in La Paz.
Bolivia’s electoral board released new data late on Monday that showed President Evo Morales had enough votes to win the hotly contested election, sparking allegations of fraud from the opposition and angry clashes in the streets.
As night descended, protesters in the cities of Tarija and Sucre burned mounds of ballot boxes and set fire to vote counting stations, images on local television showed.
The electoral board had halted a preliminary vote count late on Sunday with results then showing the election going to a second round run-off for the first time in over a decade. The abrupt pause had fueled concerns among election monitors and foreign governments over potential vote tampering.
After a nearly 24-hour gap, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) updated its count to show Morales with a wider lead of 46.85% of votes to rival Carlos Mesa’s 36.73%, just enough to give him the 10-point lead needed to win in the first round.
As protesters scuffled with police in the streets of the capital, La Paz, Mesa slammed the results as “shameful” and said he would not recognize them.
Just a day earlier, Mesa had celebrated making it to a second round after an official count of nearly 84% of ballots showed Morales short of the votes needed to avoid a run-off. Other polls also showed a tight race leading to a second round.
Morales, who has won his previous three terms with solid majorities, however insisted late on Sunday that he would get enough votes from rural areas for an outright win.
The uncertainty sparked protests in the landlocked South American country and fears among international election observers and diplomats about potential manipulation of the vote, with some worried it could trigger the kind of violent unrest that has recently roiled Chile and Ecuador. — NNN-AGENCIES
