- Tweeter
republish
The preliminary results of the Bolivian presidential election have provoked violent clashes between the police and the police in several cities of the country. They give the outgoing President Evo Morales winner in the first round, after an inexplicable suspension of the count Sunday night. An influential civil society leader called for a 24-hour strike on Tuesday (October 22nd).
" We start blocking the country at noon (16:00 GMT)," said Monday evening October 21 protesters Fernando Camacho, chairman of the Pro-Santa-Cruz Committee, the largest city in the country, in the east.
On Monday, violent incidents broke out throughout Bolivia: in Potosi and Sucre in the south, opposition supporters set the electoral courts on fire ; in La Paz, the capital, there were clashes with the police; in the west, in Oruro, the country office of the party in power was ransacked with the cry of " Fraud, fraud! "
Sunday evening, the countdown of the presidential was suspended without explanation while more than 80% of the ballots had already been counted. They gave outgoing president Evo Morales in the lead, but with less than ten points difference over the second, Carlos Mesa, which normally leads to a second round.
But when the count resumed the next day, Evo Morales was suddenly more than ten points ahead, with a victory that seems assured in the first round.
The opponent Carlos Mesa accuses Evo Morales of collusion with the Supreme Electoral Tribunal and rejects these results. For their part, observers from the Organization of American States said they were very surprised at this change in trend, and called for calm.