Bolivia Gov't Says Election Results To Be Audited by OAS, Mexico, Peru, Paraguay

Bolivia's Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera Tuesday said that an audit of the results of the Oct. 20 presidential elections will be carried out with the participation of the Organization of American States (OAS), Mexico, Paraguay, Peru and others countries.

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"The best way to clear doubts about the result of October 20 is to conduct an audit of the official calculation in order to determine whether the alleged fraud existed or not," Garcia Linera said.

Invitation to participate in this audit was also extended to former presidential candidate Carlos Mesa, who has not recognized the electoral results and has called for "permanent protests".

"Carlos Mesa has made a violent, terrible and abusive effort to ignore this victory," Garcia Linera said referring to the results which place Evo Morales as the new president with 47.08 percent of the votes.

"That is why... today we want to ask Carlos Mesa, the losing candidate, to join the audit which will be carried out by the OAS," the Bolivian vice president explained.

On Oct. 20, the conservative Citizen Community candidate achieved 36.51 percent of the vote, which placed him in second place after the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) candidate. Meanwhile, President Evo Morales won reelection with over 47 of the vote with no need for a second round as he had over 10 percent difference ahead of Mesa. 

Since there was no second round as he would have liked, Mesa argues that there was "fraud" and accused Bolivia's Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) of being unreliable as an information source, especially after the Preliminary Electoral Results (TREP) transmission was suspended, when the count had reached 83.7 percent of the total.

At an OAS Permanent Council extraordinary meeting carried out last week, however, Bolivia's Foreign Minister Diego Pary explained that the TREP results are not binding, for they are of a technical nature.

On election day, upon reaching 80 percent of the total number of votes, electoral authorities decided to pause the live transmission because the remaining percentage corresponded to rural votes, over which immediate figures cannot be extrapolated.