Protesters in the Bolivian capital have blocked roads and shop owners kept their stores in a strike called by the opposition to protest against what they say is fraud at elections giving President Evo Morales a fourth term.
Bolivia has been convulsed by protests since 20 October, when its supreme electoral tribunal abruptly suspended the publication of results from an electronic count.
With 84% of votes counted, polling showed Morales was probably headed to a run-off with his chief rival and ex-president Carlos Mesa. But when reporting of the count resumed after a nearly 24-hour pause, Morales had pulled off a razor-thin victory.
The final, legally binding vote tally gave him 47.08% of votes to Mesa’s 35.51%, less than a percentage point over the 10-point lead needed to avoid a run-off and giving Morales another five-year term.
“Morales made a mistake,” Mesa told protesters on Sunday, adding that discontent with the leftist president has been fomenting since voters rejected his attempt to lift term limits in 2016.
A court ruling later gave Morales, who has been in office nearly 14 years and is Latin America’s longest-serving head of state, the green light to run once again.
The streets of La Paz, which has a million residents, were half-empty on Monday morning, with many shops and schools shuttered. The opposition-controlled mayor’s office was also closed.
Road blockades mounted by residents using cars, wood planks, rope and even dumpsters were visible in both the middle-class south and working-class north of the city, according to Reuters witnesses.
People in Santa Cruz, Bolivia’s agricultural and industrial center, have been on strike since Wednesday of last week.
“We are demanding that our vote be respected,” said Marta Colque, 32, who works at a daycare center. Morales wants to “stay forever”, Colque said, as she stood at a blockade in the city center.
The Bolivian government said on Sunday it planned to agree a deal with the Organization of American States within days to audit the election.
Morales, 60, has said he will go to a second round if irregularities are found, but also that rural supporters could put cities under siege.
“The speed with which this is all happening is striking,” said politics professor Marcelo Arequipa, of San Pablo Catholic University.
While on Friday protesters were calling for a second round, now there are some asking for the vote to be annulled, Arequipa said. “‘[Morales] must go’ may come next.”