Posted on 12/18/2005 4:09:33 PM PST by Alter Kaker
COCHABAMBA, Bolivia - Bolivia's Socialist presidential candidate Evo Morales, who has promised to become Washington's "nightmare," held an unexpectedly strong lead over his conservative rival in Sunday's election, according to two independent exit polls.
The wide margin means Morales, a coca farmer who has said he will end a U.S.-backed anti-drug campaign aimed at eradicating the crop used to make cocaine, will likely be declared president in January.
"If (the U.S.) wants relations, welcome," Morales said after voting, holding a news conference where piles of coca leaves were spread atop a Bolivian flag. "But no to a relationship of submission."
Morales had 45 percent of the vote and former President Jorge Quiroga had 33 percent in an Equipso Mori poll. A second poll by the private Ipsos Captura organization showed Morales with a slightly narrower lead of 44.5 percent to 34 percent for Quiroga. Minor candidates were getting the rest.
If Morales fails to win more than 50 percent of the popular vote, Bolivia's newly elected congress must decide the presidency — a parliamentary process that would involve some coalition building and likely be a moderating influence on Morales.
Officials reported that voting went peacefully as the polls closed. Official returns were expected to arrive hours later.
There were some accusations of voters being fraudulently turned away at polls in Santa Cruz and Cochabamba, but national electoral court spokesman Salvador Romero said there had been no confirmed irregularities, and that the people turned away apparently had not voted in last year's municipal elections, as required by law.
The winner starts a five-year term on Jan. 22 as Bolivia's fourth president since August 2002.
Morales, 46, has promised to reverse years of sometimes violent U.S.-backed efforts to eradicate coca fields. Bolivia is the world's third-largest grower of coca, a plant that has traditional, legal uses among the country's Indians but also is used to make cocaine.
At his news conference, Morales said he wanted "bilateral relations so we can look for solutions and accords."
The Aymara Indian street activist also referred to his status as a symbol for many of Bolivia's long-downtrodden Indians, a majority in this country of 8.5 million people.
"I am the candidate of those despised in Bolivian history, the candidate of the most disdained, discriminated against," he said after working through a crowd of admirers — some of whom rushed forward to kiss him — before voting at a decrepit basketball court in the village school.
He compared the struggle of his Movement Toward Socialism party to those of Indian leaders who fought Spanish conquerers, as well as to the independence hero Simon Bolivar and socialist icon Che Guevara.
Voting later in the capital of La Paz, Quiroga, 45, said he would respect the decision of lawmakers and hoped that the congressional process would not lead to the sort of crippling street protests Morales had led in the past.
Without mentioning Morales by name, Quiroga added: "What one has to avoid is that one of the sides tries to air its differences through aggression, through sticks and stones. That is not the way we do things. We advance with proposals, with ideas and programs."
Quiroga served as president from 2001 to 2002 after then-President Hugo Banzer fell ill. He has said he would sell Bolivia's vast natural gas reserves at higher prices and improve infrastructure, education and health care.
In the event of a second round, the newly elected congress will choose the president between the top two vote-getters in mid-January.
In the five presidential elections since 1985, congress has passed over the first place candidate twice. Parties usually bargain to get the votes needed to win — a factor that could make a kingmaker of the centrist third-place candidate, Samuel Doria Medina. He has said he would support the first-place candidate if he wins by at least 5 percentage points.
Hundreds of international monitors, including a group from the Organization of American States, made it one of the mostly closely watched elections in the country's history, and Sunday's voting was conducted under heavy police guard.
Bolivians also were deciding their vice president, all 27 Senate seats, 130 House seats and all nine governorships.
Many Indians blame the country's free-market policies for enriching white elite at the expense of the majority poor.
Morales counts Cuba's Fidel Castro and Venezuela's Hugo Chavez among his friends, along with leftists in Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay who have gained power at the ballot box this decade.
The winner will succeed caretaker President Eduardo Rodriguez, a Supreme Court justice appointed by Congress on June 8, two days after street protests ended the 18-month administration of Carlos Mesa.
___
Associated Press Writer Bill Cormier in La Paz contributed to this report.
My point is, more coca = more cocaine. Bolivians are not big consumers of cocaine now but they will be.
as will the rest of the world. Why do these scholars think we are working to stop Afghanistan from growing heroin and most of Europe is behind us on that one.
maybe they'll use the coffee beans to hide the cocaine during importation?
"My point is, more coca = more cocaine. Bolivians are not big consumers of cocaine now but they will be."
And my point is that if a Bolivian wanted to make cocaine, he could do that today(pre law change) for pennys. There is no shortage of coca in Bolivia, never has been never will be.
More coca will not make it any cheaper in Bolivia, it's not possible.
"maybe they'll use the coffee beans to hide the cocaine during importation?"
I think they do that now.. :)
More coca will make cocaine more plentiful. Sellers of cocaine like new markets. Bolivia will become one.
bingo.
You're talking about people who hunt and eat monkeys. Quarantine these cretins and forget them.
Simply because I am against letting market forces move the illegal cocaine market does not mean I'm a liberal! Such a fraudulent premise is simply a red herring.
I never divested the narcotics user of their responsibility; but a Federal government does have a role in the life of it's nation. Part of that role is to protect the people - both from enemies within and without. I count the category of illegal drugs as such an enemy.
"Hate to break it to you but" you still assumed a fact not in evidence - namely, that I shifted blame off the users. Regardless of their status, the producers of coca have their own responsibility.
When they stop sending wholesalers and street-level dealers into neigborhoods giving people they can identify as weak and vulnerable a free, get-started "taste" to hook them, when those dealers stop terrorising the everyday folk in those neighborhoods and bringing in firearms, knives, brutal object lessons to caution people to "keep quiet or else" even as they carve up the streets into manageable territories to "market their product...Then maybe your argument will ring less hollow...maybe.
Until then, you can take ALL the claptrap - it's yours.
A.A.C.
Realizing the law of "supply and demand" is common sense.
I only suggested napalming FIELDS, not PEOPLE.
You burn the fields, the farmers have no money and they and their family starve.
I am pointing out "cause and effect" to you.
Bolivia (and La Paz in particular) is a gorgeous country. Too bad the people are so commie.
Growing coca is already legal in Bolivia, and something like 80% of the population either chews or drinks coca products. It's already extremely cheap. You can get a box of coca tea for $4. Cocaine, however, is not legal.
South America is another Zimbabwe in the making.
Figure of speech dude. You get out so much you're going native?
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