http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20051221.wmoraless1221/BNStory/International/
Morales wins Bolivian presidency
Wednesday, December 21, 2005 Posted at 3:34 PM EST
Associated Press
La Paz - Nearly complete official returns Wednesday showed coca activist Evo
Morales winning Bolivia's presidency, getting 54.2 per cent of the vote with
more than 92 per cent of polling places tallied.
Mr. Morales needed just over 50 per cent to win outright and avoid the
formality of congress deciding between him and the man who finished a distant
second, Jorge Quiroga.
Bolivia's politicians and news media already considered the matter settled:
Local newspapers refer to him as president-elect and the outgoing
administration said it is preparing to hand over power.
The electoral court said turnout had averaged almost 85 per cent, much higher
than in previous Bolivian elections.
Mr. Morales would be the first president since Bolivia returned to democratic
rule in 1982 to be directly elected at the ballot box, with no need for
congress to choose.
He would also be Bolivia's first Indian president, marking a historic turning
point in a country traditionally governed by the non-Indian elite.
Mr. Quiroga, a former president, was in second place with 30 per cent. He has
already conceded defeat.
President Eduardo Rodriguez's administration has said it is organizing a
transition team in anticipation of Mr. Morales' inauguration on Jan. 22.
The 46-year-old Aymara Indian has vowed not only to halt U.S.-backed
coca-eradication programs but to shake up Bolivia's political elite. Although
Aymara and Quechua Indians make up a majority of the nation's population,
people of mixed or European descent have until now governed the country.
Mr. Morales has said he would turn over "vacant, unproductive" land to poor
farmers and expand Indian rights, while increasing state control of Bolivia's
vast natural gas reserves.
On Tuesday, he said he would not allow free production of coca, but promised a
study to determine if demand for legally grown coca warrants raising production.
Current laws permit coca cultivation in 11,750 hectares of the Yungas valley
and 3,200 hectares in the Chapare region.
For thousands of years, people in the Andes have chewed coca to stave off
hunger, made it into tea or used it as medicine.
Washington has offered congratulations but spoken cautiously about the victory
of a man who described himself as the "nightmare" for the United States.
Future U.S.-Bolivia relations will be determined by the "behaviour" of the new
government in La Paz, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told CNN late Monday.
Mr. Morales has said that he welcomes good relations with the United States but
vowed ties with Washington would not be a "relationship of submission."
Two of his closest allies are Cuban President Fidel Castro and Venezuela
President Hugo Chavez, whose ties with Washington have been increasingly
strained.
On Monday night, Mr. Morales said in a telephone interview with Cuban
television that he hoped to work with Mr. Castro for "social justice" in the
region.
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