Bolivia’s Socialist Evo Morales Resigns Due to Election Fraud Allegations

Bolivia’s Socialist Evo Morales Resigns Due to Election Fraud Allegations

Bolivian Socialist President Evo Morales resigned on Sunday after only a month in office in his fourth term. He faced accusations of election fraud after “serious irregularities.” From CNN:

Morales said he was stepping down “for the good of the country,” which has been roiled by protests in the days following the October 20 election. Three people have died in the protests and hundreds have been injured.

“I regret this deeply,” Morales said, speaking on national television. He will send his resignation letter to Congress in the next few hours, he said.

Morales did not plan to leave the country, he said. “I don’t need to escape. I want the people of Bolivia to know that I have not robbed anyone, nothing. If someone thinks we are stealing, then tell me. Present the proof.”

Vice President Álvaro García also resigned.

Cuba described the actions towards Morales as a “coup” and condemned it. Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said the communist country “expresses solidarity with its brother president Evo Morales.”

The Organization of American States (OAS) discovered a “heap of observed irregularities” in the election. It suggested a new election because “it’s not possible to guarantee the integrity of the numbers and give certainty of the results.”

The results caused Maria Eugenia Choque, Bolivia’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal, to step down. The country’s attorney general’s office announced “it would investigate the tribunal’s judges for possible fraud, and police later said Choque had been detained along with 37 other officials on suspicion of electoral crimes.”

Morales first came to power in 2006. He lost respect recently after he ben “the country’s laws to stand for a fourth election.” Protests have consumed Bolivia for weeks.

In one city, protesters dragged the mayor “through the streets barefoot, covered her in red paint and forcibly cut her hair.”

The police joined the protests on Friday in Cochabamba, La Paz, Oruro, Potosí, Santa Cruz, and Sucre.

Officers told local media outlets they wanted Morales to resign and would work to “stop him from turning Bolivia into a dictatorship like his allies in Cuba and Venezuela.”

Morales agreed to new elections, but military chief Gen. Williams Kaliman said it was not enough. Due to the protests, the military asked Morales to resign to allow “peace to be restored and stability to be maintained for the good of our Bolivia.”

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