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Bolivia’s President, Facing Outrage Over Disputed Election, Calls for New Vote Bolivia’s President, Facing Fury Over Disputed Election, Calls for New Vote
(about 2 hours later)
Bolivia’s embattled president, besieged by protests, abandoned by allies and facing evidence that his party rigged the presidential election last month, called Sunday for a new vote in an extraordinary concession aimed at calming the public’s fury. Bolivia’s president, who bent the rules to run for a fourth term and then declared victory in a disputed election, called Sunday for a new vote — an extraordinary concession in the face of mounting evidence of electoral fraud and public fury.
The proposal, however, did not placate demonstrators or leaders of the opposition, who are demanding that President Evo Morales step down and not stand for re-election in the most significant threat yet to his efforts to hold on to power. But President Evo Morales’ proposal did not placate demonstrators or opposition leaders, and as they renewed demands that he step down, the president was battling for his political survival.
“Mr. Evo has ruptured the Constitutional order — he needs to leave,” Luis Fernando Camacho, one of the main leaders of the protests, said. “Mr. Evo has ruptured the constitutional order — he needs to leave,” said Luis Fernando Camacho, one of the main protest leaders.
Carlos Mesa, the former president who came in second in the disputed election in October, said the country’s political parties should come together and organize a new vote. He also blamed the president and his vice president on Sunday for “this FRAUD and the social unrest that has led to several deaths and hundreds of people wounded.” Mr. Morales, the first Indigenous president in a country where two-thirds of the population is Indigenous, has been in power longer than any other current head of state in Latin America. Once widely popular, he has become increasingly authoritarian.
Mr. Morales, who was the first president of Indigenous descent in a country where two-thirds of the population is Indigenous, has been in power longer than any other head of state in Latin America. He had been facing growing challenges from the opposition, which had accused him of illegally changing the Constitution so he could run for an unprecedented fourth term. But over the weekend, the power he had amassed since coming to office in 2006 appeared to be slipping out of his hands. As protesters occupied the streets, the disarray edged close to his inner circles, with senior figures in his own party resigning and even police officers switching sides.
That pressure increased exponentially after last month’s disputed elections. Demonstrations calling for him to step down and allow for new elections peaked on Saturday, when groups of police officers across the country broke ranks with the government and joined anti-government protests. The unrest has turned Bolivia into the latest flash point in a series of upheavals that have shaken Latin America over the last month.
Mr. Morales appeared to be quickly losing his grip on power over the weekend. He called on Saturday for political dialogue to restore order, but the main opposition leaders rejected the overture, saying his departure was the indispensable first step to ease the crisis. In Bolivia, the president’s pleas for peace have done little to quell the violence.
Speaking in a televised address on Sunday, Mr. Morales called for peace and said he would replace the Electoral Tribunal and hold a new vote, without specifying a date. The opposition had criticized the tribunal for its bias in favor of Mr. Morales, and it had been accused of widespread electoral fraud. In recent days, evidence has mounted that Mr. Morales’ party rigged last month’s presidential election. But even before the vote was cast, the opposition was accusing the president of acting illegally by changing the Constitution so he could run for an unprecedented fourth term.
This new election would be a “vote that will allow the Bolivian people to democratically elect their new leaders, incorporating new political actors,” Mr. Morales said from El Alto. “I want to ask everyone to lower all the tension.” The Organization of American States, which monitored the Oct. 20 election, issued a preliminary report on Sunday that outlined irregularities and said the vote should be annulled.
But his offer to hold new elections appeared to not satisfy demonstrators. Carlos Mesa, the former president who came in second in the disputed election, has said that the country’s political parties should come together and organize a new vote. On Sunday, he lashed out at the president and the vice president on Sunday for “this fraud, and the social unrest that has led to several deaths and hundreds of people wounded.”
Martha Yujra, a member of a workers union in El Alto, the municipality adjacent to La Paz that has been a traditional Morales stronghold, said Sunday that protesters will remain in the streets until Mr. Morales steps down. Michael Kozak, the top diplomat at the State Department overseeing Latin America policy on Sunday endorsed the call for a new election. “All those implicated in the flawed process should step down,” he wrote on Twitter, without addressing the question of whether Mr. Morales should be eligible to run again.
Demonstrations calling for the president to step down and allow for new elections appeared to reach critical mass on Saturday, when groups of police officers across the country broke ranks with the government and joined anti-government protests.
In his televised address Sunday, Mr. Morales called for peace and said he would replace the Electoral Tribunal and hold a new vote, though he did not specify a date. The opposition had accused the tribunal favoring Mr. Morales and taking part in election fraud.
Mr. Morales said the new election would be a “vote that will allow the Bolivian people to democratically elect their new leaders, incorporating new political actors.”
“I want to ask everyone to lower all the tension,” he said.
But Martha Yujra, a member of a workers union in El Alto, the municipality adjacent to La Paz that had been a traditional Morales stronghold, said Sunday that protesters would remain in the streets until Mr. Morales steps down.
“He has to resign,” she said. “He can’t call for a new election.”“He has to resign,” she said. “He can’t call for a new election.”
Mr. Morales’ speech came hours after the Organization of American States, the main entity that monitored the Oct. 20 election, released a preliminary report outlining widespread irregularities. It said the election ought to be annulled. Mr. Morales’ speech came hours after the Organization of American States released its preliminary report outlining widespread irregularities.
The O.A.S. report bolsters the widely held view among Bolivians critical of Mr. Morales that the president and his allies, facing the toughest electoral battle since he came to power in 2006, engaged in a concerted effort to rig the vote.The O.A.S. report bolsters the widely held view among Bolivians critical of Mr. Morales that the president and his allies, facing the toughest electoral battle since he came to power in 2006, engaged in a concerted effort to rig the vote.
Election officials said Mr. Morales received slightly more votes than he needed on Oct. 20 to avoid a runoff. But the legitimacy of that victory was called into question almost immediately because that finding contradicted early results, which showed he had not won by more than 10 percentage points, the threshold needed for a runoff. Election officials said Mr. Morales received slightly more votes than he needed on Oct. 20 to avoid a runoff.
The company that provided vote-counting machines for the election had also disavowed the results. But the legitimacy of that victory was called into question almost immediately because that finding contradicted early results, which showed he had not won by more than 10 percentage points, the threshold needed for a runoff.
The company that provided vote-counting machines for the election also disavowed the results.
By Saturday night, the unrest had spread to Mr. Morales’s stronghold of El Alto, where government supporters and protesters clashed on the streets, according to local news reports.By Saturday night, the unrest had spread to Mr. Morales’s stronghold of El Alto, where government supporters and protesters clashed on the streets, according to local news reports.
In the countryside, where Mr. Morales remains popular with poor farmers, government supporters blocked and attacked with stones several caravans of protesters heading to demonstrations in La Paz. In the countryside, where Mr. Morales remains popular with poor farmers, government supporters blocked and attacked with stones and firearms several caravans of protesters heading to demonstrations in La Paz.
Calla Hummel, a political scientist at the University of Miami who has done extensive field research in Bolivia, said Mr. Morales was unlikely to weather this crisis.
“His actions have undermined his reputation as a democratic leader,” Ms. Hummel said on Sunday. “The opposition is now more unified and mobilized now than the disparate groups were during the election.”
Ms. Hummel said the military’s hands-off approach was unsurprising, because the generals fear being dragged into the kind of street clashes that roiled the country in 2003. In the aftermath of those confrontations, several soldiers were prosecuted for killing demonstrators.
“The military does not want to be handed this situation,” Ms. Hummel said. “Anything is possible in Bolivia right now, but a military coup is very, very unlikely.”