Bolivia's Socialist presidential candidate Evo Morales, who has promised to become Washington's "nightmare," held an unexpectedly strong lead over his conservative rival in Sunday's election, according to two independent exit polls.
 
The wide margin means Morales, a coca farmer who has said he will end a US-backed anti-drug campaign aimed at eradicating the crop used to make cocaine, will likely be declared president in January.

"If (the US) wants relations, welcome," Morales said after voting, holding a news conference where piles of coca leaves were spread atop a Bolivian flag. "But no to a relationship of submission."

Raucous celebrations erupted among Morales' supporters after nationally televised exit polls showed him with a decisive lead over former President Jorge Quiroga, who was backed by Bolivia's business elite.

Morales had 45 percent of the vote and Quiroga had 33 percent in an Equipso Mori poll. A second poll by the private Ipsos Captura organization showed Morales with a slightly narrower lead of 44.5 percent to 34 percent for Quiroga. Minor candidates were getting the rest.

Morales counts Cuba's Fidel Castro and Venezuela's Hugo Chavez among his friends, along with leftists in Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay who have gained power at the ballot box this decade. After the exit polls were released, an AP reporter at Morales' home in Cochabamba said he immediately received a phone call from Chavez.

If Morales fails to win more than 50 percent of the popular vote, Bolivia's newly elected congress must decide the presidency — a parliamentary process that would involve some coalition building and likely be a moderating influence on Morales, even with his unexpectedly wide margin.

"Evo! Evo!" his supporters chanted in this coca-growing region. In the capital of La Paz, caravans of honking cars paraded down avenues, their passengers shouting "Evo Presidente!"

Morales, 46, has promised to reverse years of sometimes violent US-backed efforts to eradicate coca fields. Bolivia is the world's third-largest grower of coca, a plant that has traditional, legal uses among the country's Indians but also is used to make cocaine.

The Aymara Indian street activist on Sunday also referred to his status as a symbol for many of Bolivia's long-downtrodden Indians, a majority in this country of 8.5 million people.

"I am the candidate of those despised in Bolivian history, the candidate of the most disdained, discriminated against," he said after working through a crowd of admirers — some of whom rushed forward to kiss him — before voting at a decrepit basketball court in the village school.

He compared the struggle of his Movement Toward Socialism party to those of Indian leaders who fought Spanish conquerers, as well as to the independence hero Simon Bolivar and socialist icon Ernesto "Che" Guevara.

Eduardo Gamarra, a Bolivian political expert, said Morales' bid to become the latest South American leftist to win election was fueled by support that went undetected in pre-election projections. Many Indians blame the country's free-market policies for enriching white elite at the expense of the majority poor.

"I think there were people who didn't want to say openly that they wanted to vote for Evo Morales," said Gamarra, head of the Latin American studies department at Florida International University.

Quiroga, 45, said earlier Sunday he would respect the decision of lawmakers and hoped that the congressional process would not lead to the sort of crippling street protests Morales had led in the past.

Without mentioning Morales by name, Quiroga added: "What one has to avoid is that one of the sides tries to air its differences through aggression, through sticks and stones."

Quiroga served as an interim president from 2001 to 2002. He has said he would sell Bolivia's vast natural gas reserves at higher prices and improve infrastructure, education and health care.

Quiroga's spokesman declined to comment on the exit polls, but said the conservative candidate was not yet ready to concede Sunday night.

The spokesman, Hernan Terrazas, also noted that Quiroga's forces were on track to gain a majority in the Senate and a strong showing in the House.

In the five presidential elections since 1985, congress has passed over the first place candidate twice. Parties usually bargain to get the votes needed to win — making the support of the centrist third-place candidate, Samuel Doria Medina, crucial. He has said he would support the first-place candidate if he wins by at least 5 percentage points.

Hundreds of international monitors made it one of the mostly closely watched elections in the country's history, and Sunday's voting was conducted under heavy police guard.

The winner starts a five-year term on Jan. 22 as Bolivia's fourth president since August 2002, succeeding caretaker President Eduardo Rodriguez, who was appointed by Congress on June 8, two days after street protests ended the 18-month administration of Carlos Mesa.

(Chinadaily.com via agencies December 19, 2005)