Bolivia's Morales wins recall - unofficial results

[cal04]

Source: Reuters

Bolivian President Evo Morales won a recall vote on Sunday, according to unofficial results reported by local television, but will likely remain deadlocked with opponents of his leftist reforms.

A quick count of votes at a sample of stations by respected pollster Ipsos Apoyo showed Morales had secured 56.7 percent support with 50 percent of ballots counted, private television channel ATB reported. Morales needed 46.3 percent to keep his job.

An exit poll by private TV channel Unitel also said Morales had survived, with 60.12 percent of the vote.

Morales and eight of Bolivia's nine regional governors faced the recall. It was not immediately clear how many of the governors would also be confirmed in their jobs.

Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N10259214.htm

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Bolivia's Morales easily wins recall vote-exit polls
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N10259214.htm

[arcos]

1. According to AP, 3 governors were ousted...

Two of them, of the opposition.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/bolivia_referendum;_ylt=As7N3543NHOTt6bemV7V0aWs0NUE

[Selatius]

2. They voted "wrong." In decades past, we would've helped install a pro-US military dictatorship.

Augusto Pinochet comes to mind after Allende was toppled from power after being voted in by Chileans.

[Alexander]

4. Thankfully the fascist CIA foothold in SA has been reduced to Colombia.

[Ken Burch]

16. Interestingly enough, on the day he was overthrown, Allende was about to announce a referendum

The coup plotters(including The Doctor and The Madman) wanted to make sure he couldn't announce it, because Allende would have had at least an even chance of winning it.

[Judi Lynn]

20. Even after Nixon threw so many millions of US tax dollars into "making the economy scream"

in Chile to drive the population wildly against Allende, as he instructed Richard Helms.

Allende was simply beloved and had the people's respect, unlike any right-wing leader.

[Rageneau]

3. Your tax dollars at work.

Meaning I would be shocked -- shocked -- if it turned out there wasn't USA money -- Republican money -- behind these efforts to oust a democratically elected, populist president.

[billyoc]

5. Nono, Morales engineered this recall against himself, gambling that he'd make it

and the right-wing governors would lose ground. He won his gamble. :)

[eleny]

7. That takes guts

Good for him! And good for us all in the long run here in the Americas.

[Judi Lynn]

9. I read last week that it was actually the opposition, which surprised me. I had believed otherwise.

They concocted the plan some time ago, probably when they were far more confident they could do him some real damage.

If I run across the information later I'll post it.

I'm sure you remember recently they were actually claiming they would refuse to participate in this event, as well. It appears it wasn't easy for them to slip out of it.

They recently claimed they were going on a hunger strike. Probably were nearly laughed out of towns, when people reminded them that Morales supporters caught their lackeys sneaking in FRIED CHICKEN to them late at night during their last public "hunger strike."

In the last week they have called for a violent coup. Read that one yesterday or Friday.

They will NOT go quietly, and they do have the complete backing of the _Bush administration, conferring frequently with the U.S. ambassador, and are resented by some Bolivians for making secret trips to Washington which they try to keep completely quiet.

[Judi Lynn]

10. Here's an article which agrees:Bolivians back Morales in recall

Bolivians back Morales in recall
FRANK BAJAK, Associated Press Writer

August 10, 2008 5:56 PM

LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) - Voters vigorously endorsed President Evo Morales on Sunday in a recall referendum he devised to try to break a political stalemate and revive his leftist crusade, partial unofficial results showed.

More than 62 percent of voters in this bitterly divided Andean nation ratified the mandate of Morales and his vice president, Alvaro Garcia, according to a private quick count of votes from 900 of the country's 22,700 polling stations.

The 53.7 percent by which Bolivia's first indigenous president won election in December 2005 had been the previous best electoral showing for a Bolivian leader.

Morales had proposed Sunday's recall in a bold gamble to topple governors who have frustrated his bid to redress historical inequities in favor of Bolivia's long-suppressed indigenous majority.

More:
http://www.newspress.com/Top/Article/article.jsp?Section=WORLD&ID=565348542601101397

[Judi Lynn]

11. Here are two totally different claims on the origin of the recall referendum:

Bolivian Constitutional Assembly Approves Text, Referendums Pending
Written by Emily Becker
Friday, 14 December 2007

~snip~
Recall referendum could calm tensions

The recall referendum is a vote of confidence to be held for the president, vice-president and all nine governors. Morales originally introduced the legislation for the referendum last January and sent a new version to congress in early December. All the governors have agreed to the plan, though some have called it a method of distraction from other contentious issues. The governor of Cochabamba recently suggested, “…it is important that the government tell the country that if, like all the governors, if it really wants peace, it will hold the recall referendum.”5

http://ain-bolivia.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=111&Itemid=32

~~~~~~~~~~~

Bolivia's make-or-break referendum
John Crabtree

Published 16 May 2008

~snip~
It was the right who initiated the recall referendum, though it now seems the ploy may backfire. On 8 May, the bill introducing a referendum, originally a government initiative, was passed by the opposition-controlled senate. Opposition leaders believe that popular opinion is fast moving against the government and that the bill creates an opportunity to force Morales’ resignation. Rising to the challenge, Morales immediately signed it into law.

More:
http://www.newstatesman.com/south-america/2008/05/referendum-bolivia-morales

[billyoc]

12. I see what you mean now. I'm just glad it worked out for Morales.

:hi:

[bitchkitty]

6. YES! Viva Morales!

[Vidar]

8. God, how I like it when the good guys win! Viva Evo!!

[Pastiche423]

13. YEA!

Congrats, Morales!

[JustAnotherGen]

14. Congrats to Morales!

I think he's great! I remember seeing him on The Daily Show of all places with an interpreter. He was joking about being for the poor - but he wasn't part of the axis of evil! :rofl: What does that say about us when a leader who runs and wins on a platform of the people has to state emphatically - he's not 'evil'.

[Judi Lynn]

15. Unofficial results: Morales keeps job in Bolivia

Unofficial results: Morales keeps job in Bolivia
Country's first indigenous president and his VP win 60 percent of the vote

updated 2 hours, 37 minutes ago

LA PAZ, Bolivia - Voters strongly reaffirmed their faith in President Evo Morales on Sunday in a recall referendum that the Bolivian leader devised to try to break a political stalemate in the bitterly divided Andean nation, partial unofficial results showed.

Also subject to recall were eight of the country's nine governors, three of whom were ousted, according to a quick count by the Ipsos-Apoyo firm. They included two opponents of Bolivia's first indigenous president.

Nearly 61 percent of voters ratified the mandate of Morales and his vice president, Alvaro Garcia, according to the quick count of votes from 800 of the country's 22,700 polling stations done for the ATB television network. The two were elected in December 2005 with 53.7 percent of the vote.

The referendum was a bold gamble by Morales, a former leader of the nation's coca growers, to try to revive his stalled crusade to remedy age-old inequities in South America's poorest country.

~snip~
"For more than 500 years we've lived in slavery," said Rolando Choque, a 25-year-old elementary school teacher voting in Achacachi. "Change doesn't come overnight. It's a long road."

More:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26127208




Evo Morales gives Condoleeza Rica a native instrument, a charango, decorated with the image of coca leaves!



Evo Morales soccer in the snow (the Argentinian soccer player, Maradona, was there, too

You may want to see a photo of Evo Morales as a soldier in 1978, and as a soccer player in 1983, halfway down the page at this site, with some fantastic photos of Bolivia:

http://www.thewe.cc/weplanet/news/americas/bolivia/indigenous_revolt_evo_morales_president.html

[bluesmail]

17. A victory for one is a victory for all. Yes great news.

[AlphaCentauri]

18. Bolivia's Morales easily wins recall vote

Bolivian President Evo Morales easily won a recall vote on Sunday and vowed to push on with socialist reforms that his rightist opponents in South America's poorest country are trying to block.

The recall pitted Morales against governors who have pushed for autonomy for their resource-rich provinces and are furious that he has cut their share of windfall natural gas revenues.

Morales, a former coca leaf farmer who is Bolivia's first Indian leader, hopes his victory will allow him to forge ahead with changes like nationalizations, land redistribution and a constitution that aims to give more power to the poor.

"What the Bolivian people have expressed with their votes today is the consolidation of change," a beaming Morales told thousands of cheering supporters who gathered outside his presidential palace in La Paz.

http://www.reuters.fr/news/articlenews.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2008-08-11T014709Z_01_N10259214_RTRUKOC_0_US-BOLIVIA-MORALES.xml&WTmodLoc=Home-C5-worldNews-7

[katukov]

19. Yee-Haw!

Congratulations to Morales!

A blow struck for democracy and justice.

[burrowowl]

21. Viva Morales! (eom)

[bvar22]

22. Fringe benefit of the Iraq Occupation.

The NeoCons/NeoLibs are so preoccupied with the Middle East that Democracy has broken out in South America while they weren't looking and didn't have enough resources to stop it.

VIVA Democracy!!!!!
I hope it spreads to El Norte!

[Judi Lynn]

23. A few photos appeared with the AP story in the Miami Herald:

Juan Karita / AP Photo

Aymara voters line up to cast their ballots outside
a polling station in Walata Chico, north of La Paz,
Sunday, Aug. 10, 2008.



Juan Karita / AP Photo

Dinocio Coronel Aymará looks at his empty ballot
before deciding his vote in Walata Chico, north of
La Paz, Sunday, Aug. 10, 2008.



Dado Galdieri / AP Photo



Dado Galdieri / AP Photo

A coca grower, second from left, checks her
identity document while lining up to vote at a
polling station in Villa 14 de Septiembre, in the
Bolivian state of Cochabamba,Sunday,Aug. 10,2008.



Dado Galdieri / AP Photo

Bolivia's President Evo Morales holds up his vote
before casting it at a poll station in Villa 14
de Septiembre, in the Bolivian state of Cochabamba,
Sunday, Aug. 10, 2008.



Dado Galdieri / AP Photo

A child peeks through the legs of trade union
coca growers wearing T-shirts with the face of
Bolivia's Pesident Evo Morales who are lined up
to prevent the crowd from getting too close to
Morales, unseen, as Morales arrives to campaign
in Paractito village in the coca region of Chaparein
in Bolivia's Cochabamba department, Saturday,
Aug. 9, 2008.

Bolivians back Morales in recall vote
Posted on Sun, Aug. 10, 2008

By FRANK BAJAK
Associated Press Writer

LA PAZ, Bolivia -- Voters vigorously endorsed President Evo Morales on Sunday in a recall referendum he devised to try to break a political stalemate and revive his leftist crusade, partial unofficial results showed.

More than 62 percent of voters in this bitterly divided Andean nation ratified the mandate of Morales and his vice president, Alvaro Garcia, according to a private quick count of votes from 900 of the country's 22,700 polling stations.

The 53.7 percent by which Bolivia's first indigenous president won election in December 2005 had been the previous best electoral showing for a Bolivian leader.

Morales had proposed Sunday's recall in a bold gamble to topple governors who have frustrated his bid to redress historical inequities in favor of Bolivia's long-suppressed indigenous majority and extend his time in office.

Eight of the country's nine governors were also subject to recall - and two Morales foes were among the three ousted, according to the quick count, which was conducted by the Ipsos-Apoyo firm for the ATB television network. First official results were not expected until late Sunday.

Morales' leftist agenda has met with bitter opposition in the unabashedly capitalistic eastern half of the country, where protesters who accuse him of being a lackey of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez last week blockaded airports to keep Morales from touching down for campaign visits.

All four governors there easily survived Sunday's plebiscite, as expected.

But Morales did score gains with the defeat of opposition governors in the highland province of La Paz and in Cochabamba, seat of his coca-growers movement. The recently elected governor of central Chuquisaca province was exempt from the referendum.

Cochabamba Gov. Manfred Reyes, a conservative three-time presidential candidate, promptly refused to recognize the results and called the referendum unconstitutional.

Under the law that set the referendum's rules, politicians whose "no" votes exceed the percentage by which they were elected are ousted. It also lets Morales name temporary replacements pending provincial elections.

More:
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/AP/story/636069.html

[underpants]

24. We ain't in Kansas anymore-people don't vote AGAINST their best interest

BOlivia!