Triumph+for+Bolivia+candidate+of+poor,+Glaister,+Guardian



=**Triumph for Bolivia's candidate of poor**=
 * Indigenous coca advocate leads in presidential poll
 * Result reflects anti-US feeling in Latin America
 * The Guardian, London, Tuesday December 20, 2005**


 * Dan Glaister**

Evo Morales, the former head of a coca growers' union, was poised to become president of Bolivia today after appearing to easily trump his political opponents. The scale of the victory, with Mr Morales winning 51.1% of the vote, confounded predictions made during the campaign.

Most polls had put him at 34% with his nearest rival winning 27%. But Sunday's exit polls had Mr Morales, leader of the Movement to Socialism (MAS) party, ahead by almost 20%. Eighty per cent of the official tally had been counted yesterday, with full results expected today.

The scale of the victory means that for the first time in modern electoral history a president has been elected in Bolivia with a majority of the popular vote. The election does not have to go to a second round, which would have been decided by the Congress, where MAS does not hold a majority.

Mr Morales celebrated victory in a rally in a small square outside his rundown union headquarters in the eastern Bolivian city of Cochabamba.

"There's an enormous responsibility to change our history," he told a crowd of 2,000 supporters. "And with these election results I'm convinced that the change that the Bolivian people are seeking will be respected ... The people have defeated the neoliberals ... Starting next year, we're going to change the history of Bolivia, with peace and social justice."

By contrast, his main opponent, former president Jorge "Tuto" Quiroga, a US-educated businessman, conceded defeat at a luxury hotel in the capital La Paz. "I publicly and openly congratulate Don Evo Morales," Mr Quiroga said. "Now is the moment to set aside our differences and look to the future with peace, tranquillity and harmony among all Bolivians."

Mr Morales' victory is a blow to the US agenda for the country and the region. Mr Morales is part of a trend across Latin America that has seen left-leaning governments emerge. Although each leader has pursued distinct policies, they all reject US hegemony in the region.

Mr Morales is close to president Hugo Chávez of Venezuela and Fidel Castro of Cuba. He says he considers Brazil's president Lula da Silva, also a former union leader, "a brother", while one of the first foreign leaders to congratulate him on his victory yesterday was Argentina's president Néstor Kirchner. The former footballer Diego Maradona also congratulated Mr Morales on his victory.

"Bolivia under Evo Morales will be a different model," said Jim Schultz, a political analyst who runs the Democracy Centre in Cochabamba. "He has to be much more careful than Chávez [in Venezuela], but not as careful as Lula [in Brazil]."

Mr Morales, who described himself during his final campaign rally on Friday as "the United States' worst nightmare", has said that he intends to legalise the growing of coca, and to renegotiate contracts with multinationals for the extraction of Bolivia's substantial oil and gas reserves.

Mr Morales insists that he is against the production of cocaine, which is derived from the coca leaf, and in favour of the growth of coca for religious ceremonies, herbal teas and other products. "Long live coca, no to the Yankees," Morales told supporters in Cochabamba on Sunday.

A US state department official on Friday said that the $91m (£52m) in aid to Bolivia depended on the country's commitment to eradicate coca.

Mr Morales, who is an Aymara Indian, is the first wholly indigenous president in Latin America in modern times. Two-thirds of Bolivia's population are indigenous, while the country is the poorest in Latin America.

From: http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1671205,00.html