Bolivia's Morales claims re-election, control of Congress
December 07 2009 , 11:19:00
Bolivian President Evo Morales claimed a landslide re-election victory yesterday as voters backed his left-wing policies of Indian power, social spending and state control of industry.
Official results were not expected until later today but quick counts showed Morales took at least 63% of the vote, more than 35 percentage points ahead of his closest challenger, rightist former governor Manfred Reyes Villa.
Morales, an Aymara Indian, is Bolivia's first indigenous president and is hugely popular among the Indian majority that also supported a constitutional reform earlier this year to allow him to run for a second consecutive term in South America's poorest country.
"Brothers and sisters, we now have an enormous responsibility ... Your vote won't be in vain," Morales said on Sunday night from the balcony of the presidential palace, addressing thousands of supporters who waved rainbow-colored indigenous flags and shouted "Evo Again! Evo Again!"
Exit polls projected Morales would also win control of the lower house of Congress and a two-thirds majority in the Senate, where the opposition had tried to block some of his reforms in his first term.
More:
http://www.sabcnews.com/portal/site/SABCNews/menuitem.5c4f8fe7ee929f602ea12ea1674daeb9/?vgnextoid=79e6171553865210VgnVCM10000077d4ea9bRCRD&vgnextfmt=default&channelPath=World(As in the case of ALL corporate spinners, this source wants you to be aware of what the Bolivian "critics" think about this. They "forgot" to mention the Bolivian economy has been bounding FAR ahead of ANYTHING the previous Bolivian Presidents have accomplished in an enormously long time. Probably an oversight, eh?)