La Paz, (Bolivia): Evo Morales, Bolivia's first leader of Indian origin, is projected to win a huge majority against Jorge Quiroga, a former conservative President, in Bolivia's presidential elections.
Exit polls showed him with 51 per cent of the vote, on track to become the country's first indigenous head of state.
Morales, 46, said that he would become the first indigenous President of South America's poorest nation, where Aymaras and Quechua people make up the majority of the 9.3 million population.
"We have won," he told thousands of cheering supporters, adding that two Latin American leaders already had congratulated him. His Right-wing rival, ex-president Jorge Quiroga conceded defeat.
Even if official results, which may only be announced on Wednesday, show he failed to reach that mark, the Leftist leader of the coca farmers movement still looks certain to become President.
If the election goes to a second round, the newly elected Congress will pick between the two top vote-getters in January.
However, Washington considers Morales an enemy in its anti-drug fight in Bolivia, the third largest cocaine producer after Colombia and Peru.
Comments
0 comment