Socialist party candidate wins presidential polls in Bolivia

LAPAZ, Oct 19 (BBC): Exit polls suggest socialist candidate Luis Arce is set to win Bolivia's presidential election.

The polls indicate that Mr Arce, who is an ally of exiled former President Evo Morales, has won enough votes to stave off a second round.

Mr Arce has said he will form a "government of national unity".

There are deep divisions in Bolivia after last year's controversial election which ended in allegations of fraud and the exile of Mr Morales.

In order to win outright in the first round, a candidate needs to obtain 40% of the vote and have a 10-percentage-point lead over his nearest rival.

Exit polls carried out by the Jubileo research institution gave Luis Arce of the Mas party 53% of the votes, followed by centrist candidate Carlos Mesa of the Citizens' Community alliance with 30.8%.

Presidential candidate Carlos Mesa shows the electoral ballot when casting his vote in a precinct in the city of La Paz, Bolivia, 18 October 2020.

A quick-count by pollsters Ciesmori suggested Mr Arce had won with 52.4%, trailed by Mr Mesa with 31.5%.

If the polls are confirmed, Mr Arce will be the next president of Bolivia without the need for a second round of voting in November.

Mr Arce, who has already claimed victory, said Bolivia had "recovered democracy", in a reference to last year's controversial election which was annulled after allegations of fraud.

Jeanine Áñez, who became interim president after the annulment, has congratulated Mr Arce and his running mate, David Choquehuanca.

Mr Áñez, who bowed out of the presidential race last month, wrote on Twitter: "We still do not have an official count, but from the data we have, Mr Arce and Mr Choquehuanca have won the election."

She added: "I congratulate the winners and ask them to govern with Bolivia and democracy in mind."

The divisions date back to 2016 when then-President Evo Morales held a referendum asking Bolivians whether the presidents should continue to be limited in the number of times they can run for office.

The result was a "no" to abolishing term limits. But Mr Morales's party took the issue to the constitutional court, which annulled the result of the referendum and scrapped the term limits, thereby allowing him to run for president in last year's election.