Morales obtains absolute majority with 50 percent of votes

Evo Morales, the candidate of the left wing Socialist Movement appears to have the majority required to become president, after a count of 51.2 percent of the vote, the National Electoral Court (CNE) said on Tuesday.

The electoral body said that Morales had so far won 50.08 of the vote. He needed to win 50 percent of the vote, plus one vote, to become president.

After the CNE report, Morales went to meet with Jorge Quiroga, candidate for the right-wing Democratic and Social Power, who had won 32.2 percent of the vote, and Samuel Doria Mendina who won 8. 75 percent.

Bolivian law says that if a president does not win an absolute majority, the country's Congress gets to choose between the candidates.

In recent years the Congress has chosen the less popular candidate of the two, resulting in weak presidents who were easily ousted, usually in street protests against their governments' pro- US and pro-globalization policies. The winner of Sunday's election will be Bolivia's fourth president in three years.

Morales was born in 1959 in an indigenous family in Isallavi, Bolivia, and finished 11th grade in high school. He worked as a herdsman and a farmer in his early years and joined the military service at age 16.

In October 2003, Morales was instrumental in leading mass protests that led to Sanchez de Lozada's resignation in the so- called "gas wars." Morales has now become both a key and controversial figure in Bolivian politics.

Source: Xinhua