'A second round is inevitable' - Bolivian candidate Mesa on presidential vote

Record ID: 1437958

  • Title: 'A second round is inevitable' - Bolivian candidate Mesa on presidential vote
  • Date: 21st October 2019
  • Summary: LA PAZ, BOLIVIA (OCTOBER 20, 2019) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) BOLIVIAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE, CARLOS MESA, SAYING: "We're convinced that a second round is inevitable. All the facts that we have from both the Supreme Electoral Court and Viaciencia, the company that did the coordination for four television stations, establishes the difference (in vote results) of less than ten points; much less in the case of Viaciencia, practically four (points), and therefore the second round is a fact."
  • Embargoed: 4th November 2019 02:33
  • Keywords: Bolivia elections voting vote results Bolivian President Evo Morales candidate Carlos Mesa
  • Location: LA PAZ, BOLIVIA
  • City: LA PAZ, BOLIVIA
  • Country: Bolivia
  • Topics: Government/Politics,Elections/Voting
  • Reuters ID: LVA002B21HY6F
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Bolivian presidential candidate Carlos Mesa - the chief rival to President Evo Morales - said a runoff vote was "a fact" after Sunday's (October 20) presidential vote and a preliminary count of nearly 84% of official results by the electoral board.
    Morales, 59, South America's longest-serving leftist leader, won 45% of votes, compared with 38% for the more conservative Mesa, a former Bolivian president, according to the partial count, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) said late on Sunday.
    Morales needed at least 40% of votes with a 10-point lead over the runner-up to win outright. The final winner in the election will govern Bolivia, a landlocked country of 11 million people, from 2020 to 2025.
    The results indicated that Morales would head to a second-round vote for the first time since sweeping to power in 2006, giving him his weakest mandate and a likely minority of seats in Congress for his party if he manages to defeat Mesa in December.
    Mesa, who said earlier he did not trust the TSE, celebrated the results amid cheering supporters.
    Whoever wins will likely have to govern without a majority in Congress and with a gloomier economic outlook, as the commodities-fueled boom that drove rapid economic growth in Bolivia in recent years has ended and the country's important natural gas reserves have dwindled.
    (Production: Monica Machicao, Sergio Limachi)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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