Bolivia Schedules Presidential Elections

Redistricting issues that threatened Bolivia’s national elections have been settled by Interim President Eduardo Rodriguez, in a move that was backed by all three major candidates: Evo Morales, Jorge Quiroga and Samuel Doria Medina.

On December 18th, the voters will vote not only for the new president, but for all 157 members of the congress as well. MAS (Movement Towards Socialism) candidate, Evo Morales and and U.S. educated former President Jorge Quiroga are the frontrunners in recent polls.

BOGOTA, Colombia, Nov. 2 – Resolving a stalemate in Bolivia that threatened to prompt paralyzing protests, President Eduardo Rodríguez decreed Tuesday that elections for president and Congress will be held Dec. 18, paving the way for the political transformation of the isolated Andean country.

Opinion polls show that Evo Morales, an Aymara Indian who is scorned by the Bush administration for his leftist credentials, could win, leading to the first Indian government in Latin America in centuries. The traditional political parties, reviled in Bolivia for years of misrule and corruption, are expected to be swept out of power in Congress.

The decree, announced Tuesday night in a nationally televised address, came just hours after Mr. Morales, who has a slight lead over his closest rival, former President Jorge Quiroga, promised to launch street protests if the elections were postponed further. Elections for president and all 157 congressmen had initially been set for Dec. 4, but Bolivia’s fractious Congress had been unable to decide on a court-mandated reallocation of legislative seats.

Mr. Rodríguez, a jurist who became president in June after Carlos Mesa resigned in the face of furious protests, stepped in to announce the redistricting.

The wealthy province of Santa Cruz, which is opposed…

Posted by OCoileain
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