Unofficial results: Morales keeps job in Bolivia

[Judi Lynn]

Unofficial results: Morales keeps job in Bolivia
Country's first indigenous president and his VP win 60 percent of the vote

updated 2 hours, 37 minutes ago

LA PAZ, Bolivia - Voters strongly reaffirmed their faith in President Evo Morales on Sunday in a recall referendum that the Bolivian leader devised to try to break a political stalemate in the bitterly divided Andean nation, partial unofficial results showed.

Also subject to recall were eight of the country's nine governors, three of whom were ousted, according to a quick count by the Ipsos-Apoyo firm. They included two opponents of Bolivia's first indigenous president.

Nearly 61 percent of voters ratified the mandate of Morales and his vice president, Alvaro Garcia, according to the quick count of votes from 800 of the country's 22,700 polling stations done for the ATB television network. The two were elected in December 2005 with 53.7 percent of the vote.

~snip~
More than 100 international observers, mostly from the Organization of American States, were monitoring the vote, which went surprisingly smoothly after one early exception: Before dawn someone stole all the ballots in the small pro-Morales town of Yucumo in Beni state. Replacement ballots were flown in.

~snip~
"For more than 500 years we've lived in slavery," said Rolando Choque, a 25-year-old elementary school teacher voting in Achacachi. "Change doesn't come overnight. It's a long road."

More:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26127208

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