Skip to main content
Gifts from The Morning Star
Bolivian activist warns polls showing Morales's MAS in the lead could intensify persecution of his supporters
Public transport drivers take part in a protest demanding an increase in fares because quarantine measures to curb the spread of the new coronavirus have decreased their income, in La Paz, Bolivia, July 1

A LEADING indigenous Aymara Bolivian activist has warned that a survey showing the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) of ousted president Evo Morales would easily win the next election will prompt an intensified crackdown on his supporters.

A study by the The Latin America Strategic Centre for Geopolitics published on Tuesday showed that MAS presidential candidate Luis Arce – the regime established by last November’s coup has banned Mr Morales from standing – would win 41.9 per cent of the vote, more than the 10-point lead required to allow a first-round victory over right-wing candidate Carlos Mesa on 26.8 per cent .

Mr Mesa came second in last October’s election with 36.51 per cent to Mr Morales’s 47.08 per cent. Opposition claims that Mr Morales’s 10-point lead was not genuine provided the excuse for the military to overthrow him and install Jeanine Anez, whom Tuesday’s poll showed on just 13 per cent of the vote.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
RMT general secretary Eddie Dempsey
Features / 19 July 2025
19 July 2025

Ben Chacko talks to RMT leader EDDIE DEMPSEY about how the key to fixing broken Britain lies in collective sectoral bargaining, restoring unions’ ability to take solidarity strike action and bringing about the much-vaunted ‘wave of insourcing’

Similar stories
Former Bolivian President Evo Morales participates in an off
Features / 25 February 2025
25 February 2025
After years of struggle in the MAS party, the mass movement of left-wing peasants and workers has founded a new party, with former president Evo Morales as its candidate for the summer’s elections, writes CINDY FORSTER