Catorce De Septiembre, Bolivia – Socialist Evo Morales waved coca branches as he headed to vote Sunday amid jubilant townsfolk who hoped to see him become Bolivia’s first Indian president and end a U.S.-backed anti-drug campaign aimed at eradicating their crops.
ap polls gave Morales a slim edge over conservative former president Jorge Quiroga, who vowed to stay tough on coca and keep Bolivia on a free-market track despite anti-globalization protests by impoverished Indians that have ousted two presidents since 2003.
Most polling stations closed in late afternoon, although voters still in line were allowed to cast ballots at many sites. There was no immediate indication of how the voting went as officials ordered exit poll operations to withhold their findings until everyone voted.
But with six other candidates in the race and the nation bitterly divided over economic policies, neither man was expected to win a majority of the votes. That would give Bolivia’s newly elected Congress the right to decide between the top two finishers in mid-January.
Morales, 46, held himself out as Washington’s “nightmare,” promising to reverse years of U.S.-backed efforts to wipe out coca fields that have sometimes led to clashes with farmers and to jettison free-market ideas that he blames for Bolivia’s widespread poverty.
Bolivia is the world’s third-largest grower of coca leaf, which has traditional, legal uses among the country’s Indians but also is the raw material for making the cocaine that flows out of South America to feed the habits of drug users in the United States and elsewhere.
“If (the U.S.) wants relations, welcome. But ‘no’ to a relationship of submission,” Morales said after casting his ballot, talking with journalists where piles of coca leaves were spread atop a Bolivian flag.
The Aymara Indian street activist also referred to his status as a symbol for many of Bolivia’s long-downtrodden Indians, who are 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 independence hero Simon Bolivar and socialist icon Che Guevara.
But he also stressed the need to make changes peacefully.
“In this millennium, it’s not a matter of raising arms to defeat capitalism, so inhumane and savage … ,” he said. Rather, he said, he would “work democratically to change things, based on elections and on the conscience of the people.” Quiroga, meanwhile, urged voters not to accept vague promises by his rival.
“Don’t be fooled,” Quiroga, 45, said as he closed his campaign Thursday in the wealthy city of Santa Cruz, his base. “With your support we are going to show that the future of Bolivia is good and prosperous.” Quiroga served as president in 2001-02 after then-President Hugo Banzer became ill. He campaigned on a promise to sell Bolivia’s vast natural gas reserves at higher prices and to improve education, health care and roads, power and other infrastructure.
Some Bolivians argue that the gas fields should be taken over by the state.
Voting was held under heavy police guard across the country.
Hundreds of international monitors, including a group from the Organization of American States, made it one of the mostly closely watched elections in Bolivia’s history.
The election also was deciding the vice president, all 27 Senate seats, 130 House seats and all nine governorships.
Jostled by a crowd, Quiroga voted Sunday afternoon in La Paz, the capital, declaring his “confidence” in Bolivia’s democracy.
He said if Congress should have to decide the race, its vote should be made in the absence of the crippling street protests led by Morales in the past.
“In advanced democracies you have two options and the secound round is a sign of maturity” in the political system, Quiroga said.
After flying back to La Paz, Morales told cheering supporters he was confident of a first-round victory, but said he would respect the decision of lawmakers if a runoff in Congress was needed.
Morales draws much of his support from Indians, many of whom feel free-market policies of the past two decades have enriched the white elite at the expense of the poor majority. Extreme poverty afflicts about half the population and the unemployment rate is above 9 percent.
A victory for Morales would give Bolivia a president sure to be at odds with Washington. He counts Cuba’s Fidel Castro and Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez among his friends, along with leftists in Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay who have won power at the ballot box this decade.
“If he governs by really carrying out his agenda, which is quite a radical agenda, I think it’s going to be very difficult for him,” said Michael Shifter, a Latin American analyst at Inter-American Dialogue in Washington.
The winner will take office Jan. 22, succeeding 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.
