Bolivia: Morales Wins Presidential Elections

Exit polls in Bolivia indicate that the left-wing cocalero candidate Evo Morales has won 51% of the vote, beating ex president and conservative candidate Jorge Quiroga, to become the country’s first indigenous leader. Morales’ first-round win will enable him to assume the presidency in January, instead of leaving Congress to select a president. The interim president, Eduardo Rodriguez, has called these elections a test of the country’s democratic system. Morales, who has been publicly supported by Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez, is not seen to be friendly towards foreign investors or the US.