With 50% of the Vote In -- President Morales

Cochabamba news stations are now reporting, at 8:30 local time, the following results based on 50% of the vote counted nationally:

Evo Morales 50.2%
Tuto Quiroga 31.5%
Samuel Doria Medina 8.3%

If this holds, or any result close to it, it would be a stunning, historic win for Morales and MAS. To put this in perspective, in 2002 Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada was elected with 23% of the vote, finishing just one percentage point ahead of Morales. This would be a doubling of Morales’ support since then and a win that would make it virtually impossible to deny MAS the presidency.

Morales may win the election outright, the first Bolivian president in recent memory to do so. It would certainly represent a greater mandate than any president has had in decades. Even if the final results are close to this (say a Morales vote over 45%) any effort to block his ascension to the presidency would be seem as a theft of the election from its rightful winner.

Let’s see how these results hold or don’t over the next few hours. Meanwhile, I am off to Morales headquarters here in Cochabamba for his speech and will report on it when I get back.