MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Bolivian president calls to defend democracy; opposition urges “permanent mobilization in the streets”

Mesa called for “permanent mobilization” on the streets until the country's electoral authority “recognizes that the second round must take place.”

Bolivia's opposition launched a general strike on Wednesday amid protests and disturbances over disputed election results that pointed to another term for President Evo Morales, who likened the unrest to a right-wing coup.

Speaking to reporters, Morales also said he will take measures to “defend” democracy and is confident he will be declared the outright winner of Sunday's election -- with no need for a runoff.

His opposition rival, Carlos Mesa, urged his supporters to step up protests against what he said was an effort by the three-term Morales -- Bolivia's first indigenous president -- to steal the election.

Mesa said his supporters should proceed with “permanent mobilization” on the streets until the country's electoral authority “recognizes that the second round must take place.”

He also announced the formation of a political alliance with right-wing parties and centrist leaders that will press for the election's outcome to be determined in a runoff vote.

Clashes broke out between rival demonstrators on Wednesday in the eastern city of Santa Cruz, the country's largest and an opposition bastion. Offices in the city housing Bolivia's electoral authority were set on fire overnight, and security forces clashed with demonstrators in La Paz and elsewhere.

Morales, a former coca farmer and Latin America's longest serving leader, is seeking a fourth straight term.

Partial results released Sunday indicated Morales would face off in a second round with Mesa, but the electoral court on Monday released stunning new results that suddenly raised prospects of an outright Morales victory. That drew opposition complaints of fraud and triggered rioting in some cities.

“A coup is under way. I want the people of Bolivia to know,” Morales said in his first public remarks since the vote, referring to the strike and the violent anti-government protests.

“Until now, humbly, we have put up with it in order to avoid violence and we have not entered into confrontation.”

After the release of the controversial election results, mobs torched electoral offices in Sucre and Potosi, while rival supporters clashed in La Paz.

Monitors from the Organization of American States said they, too, had seen a “drastic and hard to explain change” in the trend of the initial results.

The OAS held an extraordinary meeting on Bolivia at its Washington headquarters and said “the better option” to ease the crisis would be to hold a second round runoff.

“Due to the context and the problems evidenced in this electoral process, convening a second round continues to be a better option,” said the head of the OAS election monitoring department, Gerardo Icaza.

The Catholic Church also voiced support for a runoff, with Bolivian bishops saying in a statement that “a second round with impartial supervision is the best democratic solution we have at this time.”

As of Wednesday, with about 97 percent of the vote counted, Morales had 46.03 percent compared to 37.35 percent for Mesa -- just shy of the 10-point lead necessary to avoid a runoff, according to the commission.