Morales says coup under way as rivals dispute vote

LA PAZ (AP):

Bolivian President Evo Morales said Wednesday his opponents are trying to stage a coup against him as protests grew over a disputed election he claims he won outright, though a nearly finished vote count suggests it might head to a second round.

The leftist leader needs a 10 percentage point margin over his closest rival to avoid a December run-off in which he’d risk being defeated by a united opposition in his bid for a fourth consecutive term in office.

The vote count Wednesday had him with a 9.48 percentage point, lead with just 3.22 per cent of the votes from Sunday’s election left to count. He led former President Carlos Mesa 46.49 per cent to 37.01 per cent.

Mesa has warned of fraud, and international vote monitors have expressed concern at an earlier unexplained day-long gap in reporting results before a sudden spurt in Morales’ vote percentage. Opposition backers have staged rowdy protests since the vote.

Morales, Bolivia’s first indigenous president and the region’s longest-ruling leader, repeated his claim that he won outright and said his opponents were conspiring to oust him.

“I want to denounce to the people and the world that a coup d’etat is under way,” Morales said in a press conference, in which he did not take any questions. “The right wing has prepared it with international support.”

Morales did not specify where the alleged international support for the coup is coming from, but he regularly rails against US ­imperialism in Latin America.

He cited the burning by ­protesters of electoral offices in two cities where votes are being tallied as proof of the coup.

“We are waiting for a report from the Electoral Tribunal, although the TREP (a quick count) has already said that we won,” the president said.

But the tribunal’s quick count web page, whose results are not binding, showed Morales with a 9.7 percentage point lead over Mesa, with about 99 percent of votes accounted for Wednesday.

Opposition leaders, in turn, have called on Bolivians to defend “the citizen vote and democracy” in the streets against suspicions of fraud by Morales’ party.

Suspicions of electoral fraud rose when officials abruptly stopped releasing results from the quick count of votes hours after the polls closed Sunday with Morales topping the eight other candidates, but also falling several percentage points short of the percentage needed to avoid the first run-off in his nearly 14 years in power.

Yet, the president claimed an outright victory late Sunday, telling supporters that the votes still to be counted – largely from rural areas where he is most popular – would be enough to give him an outright victory.