Bolivia: Socialists Lead Polls, Coup Plotters Frightened

By teleSUR

03 January 20

Regarding the 2020 presidential elections, the self-proclaimed President Añez summoned elites to join in a single front against the Movement Toward Socialism.

ocal media Unitel Friday released a poll according to which 20.7 percent of the Bolivians will vote for the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) presidential candidate, whoever he or she might be.

Currently, 15.7 percent of the citizens are prone to vote for the self-proclaimed interim President Jeanine Añez, who seized power through a U.S.-backed coup d'état.

Former Bolivian President Carlos Mesa is in third place of electoral preferences with 13.8 percent of voting intention. Further down is businessman Marco Pumari with 8.2 percent of popular support.

The Revolutionary Nationalist Movement (MNR) politician and Santa Cruz Civic Committee chair Luis Fernando Camacho only has 6.9 percent of citizen support.

Only 47.1 percent of the respondents said that they will not vote for the MAS candidate, according to this survey, which was carried out from Dec. 21 to Dec. 30 and has a 95 percent level of reliability.

Bolivia's Supreme Electoral Tribunal will launch the call for presidential elections next January 6.

On the last days of December, the MAS leader Evo Morales announced that his party will elect its presidential candidate on January 19.

"More than 1,000 people have been victims of human rights violations in Bolivia by the Jeanine Añez dictatorship."

Given the difficulties in carrying out legal maneuvers that could leave the MAS out of the elections, Añez called a "summit of political leaders," in which she hopes the Bolivian elites will agree to defeat the Socialists through a single presidential candidacy.

"We do not want dispersion of the vote, we do not want what happened on Oct. 20," she said tacitly referring to the date when Morales won the 2019 presidential elections. 

Meanwhile, citizens have realized the despair that the right is experiencing because of the possible emergence of a progressive government.

"The imminent triumph of MAS makes murderous coup plotters and traitors to their homeland tremble because they will soon be held accountable for their actions," citizen Nelly Salazar tweeted.