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Bolivia election campaign underway with Morales in exile
LA PAZ, Feb 4, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – Bolivia’s May 3 general election campaign officially began on
Monday as the deadline for presidential and legislative candidates to register passed, with
exiled former president Evo Morales seeking a legislative seat.
Morales, who resigned in November after almost 14 years leading the landlocked South
American country, is barred from standing for president.
But on Monday, he officially registered as a candidate for the senate representing the
Cochabamba region in Bolivia’s south, the supreme electoral court (TSE) said on its website.
The 60-year-old is in exile in Argentina.
He has vowed to return to his homeland to lead his Movement for Socialism (MAS) party’s
campaign, although a warrant has been issued for his arrest.
MAS led the most recent opinion poll with 26 percent of voter intentions, and Morales has
named former economy minister Luis Arce as the party’s candidate.
As well as a new president, Bolivians will elect 36 senators and 120 deputies.
The results of the October 20 election were annulled after an audit by the Organization of
American States found evidence of vote-rigging in Morales’s favor.
That revelation led to the military’s withdrawing support for the former trade unionist. He
resigned on November 10 after three weeks of protests against the election result by
opponents who accused Morales of fraud.
“As of now candidates and political alliances can start to approach the citizenry and win
more support,” said TSE president Salvador Romero.
All six previous TSE magistrates were detained following the October election, accused of
rigging the results.
Morales took to Twitter on Monday to denounce the interim government for allegedly trying to
apprehend his lawyer Wilfredo Chavez as he sought to register the ex-president as a
legislative candidate.
Morales was Bolivia’s first indigenous president but since his exile has been accused by the
interim government of sedition and terrorism for allegedly urging his supporters to lay siege
to major cities including La Paz.
Besides Arce, seven other presidential candidates have registered, including conservative
interim leader Jeanine Anez. She initially had insisted she would not stand and was running
fourth in the last opinion poll with 12 percent.
Centrist former president Carlos Mesa, beaten by Morales in the October vote, is standing
again.
– ‘Narcissism contest’ –
Alongside right-wing candidate Luis Fernando Camacho, Mesa was a joint second with 17
percent in the poll.
Evangelical preacher Chi Hyun Chung and conservative Jorge Quiroga, who was president from
2001-2002, have also registered to stand.
The other contenders are mining leader Feliciano Mamani and retired rightist general Ismael
Schabib, the TSE said.
Just as in the last election in October, opponents to Morales have failed to form a united
front despite meeting on Saturday in a bid to do so. They are in a “narcissism contest”
according to Waldo Albarracin, dean at San Andres University, one of the most important in
Bolivia.
United Nations envoy Jean Arnault called the start of campaigning “a decisive stage of the
electoral process and consolidation of peace in Bolivia.”
In the first round of voting, a candidate needs to win an absolute majority or gain at least
40 percent with a minimum 10-point lead over the nearest challenger.
If not, there will be a run-off for the top two candidates on June 14.
BSS/AFP/AU/12:38 hrs