BOLIVIA: Bolivia's two top presidential candidate close their campaigns days before election.

Record ID: 347135

  • Title: BOLIVIA: Bolivia's two top presidential candidate close their campaigns days before election.
  • Date: 16th December 2005
  • Summary: MOON
  • Embargoed: 31st December 2005 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVABAJO2GIME4URLEOC8CFO79DR8
  • Story Text: Bolivia's top two presidential candidates, leftist Evo Morales and Jorge 'Tuto' Quiroga, closed their campaign on Thursday (December 15).
    Thousands of Bolivians packed a soccer stadium to hear Morales, a strident U.S. critic who is leading Bolivia's presidential race, make a final plea for votes in his bid to become the country's first indigenous president in Sunday's election.
    The Movement to Socialism candidate has vowed that if elected, he would move to legalize the crop that is the key ingredient used to make cocaine. Coca is the target of U.S. anti-drug efforts in Bolivia, the world's third-largest cocaine producer.
    The rally ended a months-long campaign that has seen Morales travel Bolivia's mountain hamlets and major cities, hoping to galvanize this country's poor Indian majority and sweep to power.
    Washington insists most of the coca leaf grown in Bolivia is eventually processed into cocaine, but coca farmers say they aim to supply a legal market. Bolivian Indians chew the green shiny leaf to fend off altitude sickness and brew it in herbal teas.
    Morales has also used his campaign to criticize U.S. free-trade policies, arguing they have plunged South America's poorest country deeper into poverty.
    Polls show him holding a slight lead over a conservative opponent in Sunday's vote among three leading candidates, but unlikely to garner a majority, leaving Congress to choose the president next month in a vote between the top two finishers.
    Second place candidate, conservative Jorge Tuto Quiroga is trailed by cement magnate Samuel Doria Media.
    Quiroga, a former president, is the Podemos Party candidate wrapped up his campaign Thursday from Santa Cruz.
    A nationwide opinion poll by Ipsos-Captura published on Wednesday showed Morales with 34.2 percent support, five percentage points ahead of Quiroga. The survey gave a margin of error of 2.4 percentage points.
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