Evo Morales confident over fourth presidential win in Bolivia

Incumbet President Evo Morales relies rural voters will grant him the necessary ballots to win in first round the Sunday general elections, in which his Movement toward Socialism (MAS) won absolute majority in both chambers of Congress.

According to the latest report by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE, in Spanish), by midnight Morales and his running mate for Vice President Álvaro García Linera led the vote counting by 45.71 percent against 37.6 percent Carlos Mesa, of the right-wing alliance Citizenship Community (CC) when there was 16.6 percent of the ballots still to be counted.

Those votes are from outlying rural areas which have massively supported Morales. The MAS leader needs a margin of 10 points over his closest rival to win the first round of the presidential elections.

In the vote count, the Christian Democratic Party led by evangelist and right-wing politician of Korean descend Chi Hyung Chung comes third in the race with 8.75 percent.

There were over 6.97 million registered voters. According to the TSE, the turnout amounted to 89.6 percent of the electorate.

In proclaiming himself the victor, Morales celebrated his fourth consecutive presidential win to run the country from 2020 through 2025 giving his team the chance to keep pushing ahead his project of change and development for all Bolivians, he assured.

With García Linera by his side and flanked by some of his ministers, closest aides and social leaders, Morales told late on Sunday night followers who packed the inner yard of Palacio Quemado, former executive office, MAS had also won the absolute majority in both chambers of Congress.

'We won once again, it's four consecutive elections that we win, this is historical and unprecedented,' he exclaimed in a passionate speech.

By region, MAS leads the vote in five of the country's nine departments over CC, in Cochabamba (55,1 por ciento); La Paz (52,3); Potosí (48,6); Oruro (47,6) and Pando (43,8), according to TSE preliminary reports.

CC is leading in Santa Cruz (47.3); Chuquisaca (46.3), Tarija (42.7) and Beni (36.9).

International observers agreed the election day was positive, while highlighting the high turnout of people coming to cast their ballots in orderly manner. In all, 235 political experts came to Bolivia to oversee the electoral process.

Morales won the elections in 2005, 2009 and 2014 with absolute majority and voting from 54 to 64 percent. This fourth win allows him to follow up with his project of deepening social and economic changes envisioned in the Bicentennial Agenda.

The initiative rests on 13 pillars, being poverty eradication, universalization of basic services, free access to health and education, developing telecommunications, guaranteeing food security and expanding the productive sector some of them.

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