The European Union, the United States and Latin American countries have raised their stature against Bolivian President Evo Morales, re-elected in the first round after a contested vote, calling for a second round or threatening him not to recognize it. Thursday night, after a long and controversial countdown, with 99.99% of ballots counted, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) indicated on its website that the head of the socialist state had won 47.07% of the vote against 36.51% for his main opponent, the centrist Carlos Mesa. The gap is therefore more than 10 percentage points needed to win in the first round.
Morales' party "has just consummated electoral fraud," denounced the centrist Carlos Mesa, president from 2003 to 2005, who asked Bolivians to continue the mobilization. He has received support from a group of parties and organizations from right and center. "We won in the first round," had thrown in front of the press a few hours before the end of the recount the Socialist President, in power since 2006 and en route for a fourth term 2020-2025.
After first partial figures on Sunday night, suggesting a second round, new results released on Monday had almost given victory to the outgoing head of state, raising suspicions on the part of the opposition and international observers. of fraud. The European Union on Thursday called for "an end to the process of counting in progress", saying that "the best option would be to hold a second round to restore confidence and ensure respect for the democratic choice of the Bolivian people ". For their part, the United States, Brazil, Argentina and Colombia asked Thursday that a second round takes place if the Organization of American States (OAS) does not confirm the result of the first round.
The OAS, whose observation mission had expressed its "surprise" and "concern" at the reversal of the count, agreed to conduct an audit of the results. But no details on the date and conditions of this mission had been communicated for the time being.