MABB ©
While election day, October 20th, ran relatively smooth and with a remarkable routine character (that is until 6 pm), that evening and the following day suddenly turned turbulent and disconcerting. The spontaneous demonstrations around the country's major cities, yelling 'my vote is sacred', were just the beginning of what was going to be a chaotic situation around the country in which citizens were showing their deep distrust of the government.
First of all, it is necessary for me to clarify the voting process. After people cast their vote in the ballot, they shove the ballot inside the urn. Once all the people in a voting table exercise their right to vote, the table closes. The next step is to count the votes in a public count and fill out the necessary paperwork (the so-called Acta or closing certificate). The officials then proceed to take pictures of these documents including the result counts. They send these data in electronic form to the central office of the rapid count system the OEP set up. Then, they pack up these documents in plastic bags, seal them and place them in the so-called electoral suitcases (maletas electorales), which they then proceed to seal again. These suitcases, see the image above, are then taken to the departmental electoral office, where they will be counted and, from there, are sent to La Paz, for the final count.
Having described the process, I proceed to describe the day. I said disconcerting because what seemed to be a routine for Bolivians, that is, going to vote, cast their vote and enjoy a relatively peaceful and good-weathered free day, turned into a tense and agitated evening with many citizens leaving the comfort of their houses to go watch and guard their votes at the different places where they were being stored.
The one event triggering this sudden change in the mood was the Electoral Tribunal's decision to stop updating a rapid count system they had created to precisely bring transparency to the process, along with double-checking results and providing reliable preliminary results. As soon the OEP stopped updating the website, the general public began to cry fraud.
At first, many people just came out on the streets to demonstrate their distrust. Many groups staged demonstrations, while other people came out armed with their phones and began to search for signs of fraud.
It was these latter group of people, who mostly were in small groups and ad hoc, that began to "broadcast" in social media what they perceived as foul. Many of the videos I saw were cast on Facebook and Twitter. And here I have to say, while normally I do not pay attention to such "videos" in social media, some of them really made me scared. For example, there was a video of a person in Santa Cruz, who armed with his mobile, had clearly identified a car transporting many of the so-called "electoral suitcases". As the car was caught up in traffic, the person approached the car and recorded how the people inside the car were having their hands inside the supposedly closed cases with the ballots. As the person with the mobile asked what were they doing, there were only scared faces to see. What were they doing? The boxes (suitcases) are supposed to be sealed.
Another example, once again a person with a mobile camera approached a street (Landaeta St.) in the center of La Paz and filmed many people looking at several "electoral suitcases" thrown open on the streets with the contents out and ballots exposed. As the mobile made a close up of the ballots, many of them were already marked in favor of the MAS. Now, of course, there was no way to know whether these ballots were regular ballots that had been used by voters? or they were new ballots only marked for MAS. The questions were: if the ballots were regular, what were they doing thrown on the street? if they were not regular, were they being used to replace regular ballots?
By Monday morning and midday, things got even more agitated. For one, Carlos Mesa has been issuing alarming warnings telling people something was going on and asking people to go out and watch out for democracy. It turns out, his alarming warnings were not all too exaggerated. The OAS, one of two international organizations accompanying the Bolivian electoral process this year (the other one being the EU, I think), began issuing its own cautious warning through Twitter asking the OEP to clarify the stop and urging them to renew the update as soon as possible.
By Monday evening, things got a lot more chaotic. Once again videos uploaded to social media showed many people from opposing camps chanting and aggressively insulting each other in front of one of the OEP's offices in La Paz. Other civil society organizations, such as the Conalde or Fejuve, issued warnings that they were not going to accept fraud. The Conalde, headed by former Ombudsman, Waldo Albarracin, even began talking about civil war.
Other videos showed mobilizations across the nine capital cities in the country and mobs acting out without any control. In Tarija, the departmental electoral office was broken into, the ballots carried out on the street and fired up. There was even a fire inside the office. The police could not do anything. In Sucre, a similar fire was started. In Potosi, a fire set in the first two floors of the local OEP office had trapped officials in the upper floors, who ended up jumping out the window. It is not known yet how badly these people are injured. The building is burnt. In Sucre, Waldo Albarracin, was wounded by a tear gas projectile. In Cochabamba people (a mob) forced their way into the compound where the departmental electoral office was counting the votes. The count was suspended. In Santa Cruz, the Civic Committee for Santa Cruz announced more measures such as strikes and roadblocks. In Oruro, a mob vandalized the MAS offices.
The result of all this was a confrontation with police forces with the use of tear gas and police repression. For now, it seems these disturbances are confined to the largest cities, whereas the countryside remains firmly behind Morales.
As the second day arrives and the afternoon approaches, the OEP had updated the rapid count website. In it, visitors can see the difference among the first candidate and the second has grown larger and the possibility of a runoff election has become smaller. To which the OAS reacted by issuing a stern statement saying they are seriously concerned with the latest development in what they had largely seen as an election where the first and second place candidates will have to go to a runoff election. They mentioned the parallel count by a government-sanctioned company, viaciencia, which published their results showing a 4 percent difference and the results of other two non-sanctioned companies which results also showed similar results.
On its part, CC has officially issued a statement rejecting the results and alleging electoral fraud. Paola Cortez, candidate and in charge of communications for the political organization, said in an interview with the channel RTP that the government was trying to increase the difference between Morales and Mesa to render a runoff unnecessary.
These are some newspapers' front pages around Bolivia.
Update:
In Santa Cruz, the Civic Committee (Comite Civico de Santa Cruz), an influential civil society organization that hosts a plethora of other organizations, has declared a general strike starting Wednesday.
By the same token, in La Paz, Conalcam (Coordinadora Nacional para el Cambio), an organization composed of many organizations backing up the government's "change", has equally stated they will begin to "mobilize" (vigils, marches, demonstrations, etc.) immediately in defense of the popular vote.
Meanwhile, in La Paz, the election observers of the European Union and the OAS met with Morales to, I guess, exchange words. The OAS said it was going to express its concern for the manner in which the electoral process was put in doubt and the EU read their statement released in the morning. At the same time, about 200 meters from the government palace, opposition deputies Rafael Quispe (Unidad Democratica) and Wilson Santamaria (Unidad Democratica) express their desire to nullify the results of the election due to the confusion and tarnish of the process. In fact, this call is gaining momentum. Many other people are calling for new elections. Among them, several candidates and leaders of other organizations, such as religious organizations.
In Cochabamba, MAS and other supporting organizations called for a gathering in the city center to show their support for the government. In a similar manner, Cochabambinos (citizens of Cochabamba city) are organizing themselves to resist the government's and MAS' efforts to gain support. The video below shows those efforts.
| Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  |
| Source: Live feed Red Uno |
While election day, October 20th, ran relatively smooth and with a remarkable routine character (that is until 6 pm), that evening and the following day suddenly turned turbulent and disconcerting. The spontaneous demonstrations around the country's major cities, yelling 'my vote is sacred', were just the beginning of what was going to be a chaotic situation around the country in which citizens were showing their deep distrust of the government.
First of all, it is necessary for me to clarify the voting process. After people cast their vote in the ballot, they shove the ballot inside the urn. Once all the people in a voting table exercise their right to vote, the table closes. The next step is to count the votes in a public count and fill out the necessary paperwork (the so-called Acta or closing certificate). The officials then proceed to take pictures of these documents including the result counts. They send these data in electronic form to the central office of the rapid count system the OEP set up. Then, they pack up these documents in plastic bags, seal them and place them in the so-called electoral suitcases (maletas electorales), which they then proceed to seal again. These suitcases, see the image above, are then taken to the departmental electoral office, where they will be counted and, from there, are sent to La Paz, for the final count.
Having described the process, I proceed to describe the day. I said disconcerting because what seemed to be a routine for Bolivians, that is, going to vote, cast their vote and enjoy a relatively peaceful and good-weathered free day, turned into a tense and agitated evening with many citizens leaving the comfort of their houses to go watch and guard their votes at the different places where they were being stored.
The one event triggering this sudden change in the mood was the Electoral Tribunal's decision to stop updating a rapid count system they had created to precisely bring transparency to the process, along with double-checking results and providing reliable preliminary results. As soon the OEP stopped updating the website, the general public began to cry fraud.
At first, many people just came out on the streets to demonstrate their distrust. Many groups staged demonstrations, while other people came out armed with their phones and began to search for signs of fraud.
It was these latter group of people, who mostly were in small groups and ad hoc, that began to "broadcast" in social media what they perceived as foul. Many of the videos I saw were cast on Facebook and Twitter. And here I have to say, while normally I do not pay attention to such "videos" in social media, some of them really made me scared. For example, there was a video of a person in Santa Cruz, who armed with his mobile, had clearly identified a car transporting many of the so-called "electoral suitcases". As the car was caught up in traffic, the person approached the car and recorded how the people inside the car were having their hands inside the supposedly closed cases with the ballots. As the person with the mobile asked what were they doing, there were only scared faces to see. What were they doing? The boxes (suitcases) are supposed to be sealed.
Another example, once again a person with a mobile camera approached a street (Landaeta St.) in the center of La Paz and filmed many people looking at several "electoral suitcases" thrown open on the streets with the contents out and ballots exposed. As the mobile made a close up of the ballots, many of them were already marked in favor of the MAS. Now, of course, there was no way to know whether these ballots were regular ballots that had been used by voters? or they were new ballots only marked for MAS. The questions were: if the ballots were regular, what were they doing thrown on the street? if they were not regular, were they being used to replace regular ballots?
By Monday morning and midday, things got even more agitated. For one, Carlos Mesa has been issuing alarming warnings telling people something was going on and asking people to go out and watch out for democracy. It turns out, his alarming warnings were not all too exaggerated. The OAS, one of two international organizations accompanying the Bolivian electoral process this year (the other one being the EU, I think), began issuing its own cautious warning through Twitter asking the OEP to clarify the stop and urging them to renew the update as soon as possible.
By Monday evening, things got a lot more chaotic. Once again videos uploaded to social media showed many people from opposing camps chanting and aggressively insulting each other in front of one of the OEP's offices in La Paz. Other civil society organizations, such as the Conalde or Fejuve, issued warnings that they were not going to accept fraud. The Conalde, headed by former Ombudsman, Waldo Albarracin, even began talking about civil war.
Other videos showed mobilizations across the nine capital cities in the country and mobs acting out without any control. In Tarija, the departmental electoral office was broken into, the ballots carried out on the street and fired up. There was even a fire inside the office. The police could not do anything. In Sucre, a similar fire was started. In Potosi, a fire set in the first two floors of the local OEP office had trapped officials in the upper floors, who ended up jumping out the window. It is not known yet how badly these people are injured. The building is burnt. In Sucre, Waldo Albarracin, was wounded by a tear gas projectile. In Cochabamba people (a mob) forced their way into the compound where the departmental electoral office was counting the votes. The count was suspended. In Santa Cruz, the Civic Committee for Santa Cruz announced more measures such as strikes and roadblocks. In Oruro, a mob vandalized the MAS offices.
The result of all this was a confrontation with police forces with the use of tear gas and police repression. For now, it seems these disturbances are confined to the largest cities, whereas the countryside remains firmly behind Morales.
As the second day arrives and the afternoon approaches, the OEP had updated the rapid count website. In it, visitors can see the difference among the first candidate and the second has grown larger and the possibility of a runoff election has become smaller. To which the OAS reacted by issuing a stern statement saying they are seriously concerned with the latest development in what they had largely seen as an election where the first and second place candidates will have to go to a runoff election. They mentioned the parallel count by a government-sanctioned company, viaciencia, which published their results showing a 4 percent difference and the results of other two non-sanctioned companies which results also showed similar results.
| Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  |
| Source: tuvotocuenta.org.bo |
These are some newspapers' front pages around Bolivia.
| Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  |
| Source: IBCE |
Update:
In Santa Cruz, the Civic Committee (Comite Civico de Santa Cruz), an influential civil society organization that hosts a plethora of other organizations, has declared a general strike starting Wednesday.
By the same token, in La Paz, Conalcam (Coordinadora Nacional para el Cambio), an organization composed of many organizations backing up the government's "change", has equally stated they will begin to "mobilize" (vigils, marches, demonstrations, etc.) immediately in defense of the popular vote.
Meanwhile, in La Paz, the election observers of the European Union and the OAS met with Morales to, I guess, exchange words. The OAS said it was going to express its concern for the manner in which the electoral process was put in doubt and the EU read their statement released in the morning. At the same time, about 200 meters from the government palace, opposition deputies Rafael Quispe (Unidad Democratica) and Wilson Santamaria (Unidad Democratica) express their desire to nullify the results of the election due to the confusion and tarnish of the process. In fact, this call is gaining momentum. Many other people are calling for new elections. Among them, several candidates and leaders of other organizations, such as religious organizations.
In Cochabamba, MAS and other supporting organizations called for a gathering in the city center to show their support for the government. In a similar manner, Cochabambinos (citizens of Cochabamba city) are organizing themselves to resist the government's and MAS' efforts to gain support. The video below shows those efforts.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.![]()
Image may be NSFW.
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Image may be NSFW.
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