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| Caribbean-Latin America |
| Early results: Bolivians back Morales in recall |
| 2008-08-11 |
| Voters strongly reaffirmed their faith in President Evo Morales on Sunday in a recall referendum that the Bolivian leader devised to try to break a political stalemate in the bitterly divided Andean nation, partial unofficial results showed. Also subject to recall were eight of the country's nine governors, three of whom were ousted, according to a quick count by the Ipsos-Apoyo firm. They included two opponents of Bolivia's first indigenous president. Nearly 61 percent of voters ratified the mandate of Morales and his vice president, Alvaro Garcia, according to the quick count of votes from 800 of the country's 22,700 polling stations done for the ATB television network. The two were elected in December 2005 with 53.7 percent of the vote. The referendum was a bold gamble by Morales, a former coca growers' leader, to try to revive his stalled crusade to remedy age-old inequities in South America's poorest country. His leftist agenda has met with bitter opposition in the unabashedly capitalistic eastern half of the country, where protesters last week blockaded airports to keep Morales from touching down for campaign visits. All four governors there easily survived Sunday's plebiscite, as expected. But the initial results indicate Morales did score gains with the defeat of opposition governors in the highland province of La Paz and in Cochabamba, seat of his coca-growers movement. The recently elected governor of central Chuquisaca province was exempt from the referendum. Under the law that set the referendum's rules, politicians whose "no" votes exceed the percentage by which they were elected are ousted. It also lets Morales name temporary replacements pending provincial elections. |
| Posted by:Fred |