Bolivia's President Evo Morales, Latin America's longest standing lead...
LA PAZ - Bolivia’s President Evo Morales, Latin America’s longest standing leader, is facing the severest challenge since he took power in 2006, with weeks of protests and signs his support is waning after disputed elections last month.
On Sunday, the Organization of American States - a formal monitor of the Oct. 20 vote - said the election should be annulled due to serious irregularities and manipulations and a new election should take place. Morales agreed to do so.Morales, a former coca farmer union head often known just as “Evo”, came to power as Bolivia’s first indigenous leader. He has guided the landlocked nation to steady economic growth and overseen a period of relative stability.
Despite that result, in 2017 Morales went to the country’s top court to get term limits overturned. The court, packed with allies, ruled that term limits were a violation of his “human rights,” allowing him to pursue a fourth straight term.Questions were raised when an official fast count by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal abruptly stopped in the evening after the vote, with close to 84% of the count complete. It showed then Morales and runner-up Carlos Mesa heading to a second round.
The OAS report on Sunday there were irregularities, “serious security flaws” in the computer systems and “clear manipulation” of the count, which called the into question Morales’ victory.The audit, which many in the opposition had distrusted and distanced themselves from, potentially offers a way to defuse tensions that have roiled Bolivia since the October election, with protests, road blockades and rising violence.
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