President Evo Morales, the first indigenous President of Bolivia, has indicated that he will call for new elections after the Organization of American States (OAS), which carefully monitored the election, called for the results to be annulled. 

Morales was facing an election, which took place on October 20, against Carlos Mesa, who was Bolivia’s vice president from 2002-2003 and the President from 2003-2005. He and the opposition are heavily based in the Santa Cruz region in eastern Bolivia. 

There have been widespread protests, strikes, and roadblocks since the night of the election. At least three people have been killed. Morales’s position has been getting increasingly untenable as the people have grown angry over perceived election rigging. As the results were being tallied, the government ceased the count for 24 hours.

Morales was first accused of election rigging back in 2005. That charge was never proved, but now the OAS has found an abuse of the voting system. 

After the delay, Morales was found to have garnered 47 percent of the vote and supposedly defeated Mesa by more than 10 percent. That is important because according to Bolivian law, a candidate can win the election if he/she gathers 40 percent of the vote and defeat the nearest challenger by more than 10 percent of the vote. Mesa “officially” finished with 36 percent. 

On Friday, Mesa asked the country’s Congress to prepare for new elections. Then protestors overran and shut down two state-run media outlets. In further developments,, the national police have not only not quelled the protests, but have in many cases joined the protesters against the sitting president. These protests have not been isolated, but are occurring in many of the bigger cities of the country.

Adding to the pressure on Morales, the armed forces have stated that they will not deploy to confront the protesters. On Saturday, the military released a statement saying, “that we will never confront the people to whom we have a duty and we will always ensure peace, coexistence and the development of our homeland.”

OAS observers, after completing an audit found “clear manipulations” of Bolivia’s voting laws, and stated that they could not verify the results of the election. In further damaging Morales’s claim to the presidency, the OAS audit team of 36 observers found the Bolivian election as “gravely flawed”.