The Vice President of the Electoral Tribunal of Bolivia resigns amid allegations of fraud in elections

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(CNN Spanish) - The vice president of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal of Bolivia, Antonio Costas, resigned from his position for what he called "disagreements" with the suspension measure for the publication of a quick count of the presidential election votes for almost 24 hours.

In a letter addressed to the Vice President of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, Costas explains the reason for his resignation: “The despondent decision of the Chamber of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal to suspend the publication of the results of the system of transmission of preliminary electoral results - TREP”.

He adds that he did not participate in that decision and considers that this situation "resulted in the discrediting of the entire electoral process, causing an unnecessary social upheaval."

For Carlos Mesa, the main container of President Evo Morales in the presidential elections, what happened in Bolivia with the transmission of electoral data is a fraud.

"What happens in Bolivia is a gigantic fraud to steal (prevent it from happening) the second round," Mesa said Monday and warned that he will not recognize the results "of an election that is blatantly fraudulently handled."

This Sunday, election day, the transmission of the election results was inexplicably halted when it seemed that the elections would go to a second round in December.

But when the page of the Plurinational Electoral Body of Bolivia recovered the transmission of data, there was a contradiction in the vote count, and according to that official information, the transmission of the minutes favors Morales, while the vote count favors Mesa. According to the most recent report of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, Evo Morales has 46.4% of the votes and Carlos Mesa, 37.07%, with 95.63% of verified minutes, which means that so far there is a possibility of a second presidential round.

The situation has become violent, so much so that protesters took to the streets of Bolivia and raided two Electoral Court buildings in different cities of Bolivia on Monday accusing the authorities of electoral fraud, the Bolivian Information Agency, ABI reported.

So far the electoral court has not given a definitive result.

Meanwhile, this Sunday, President Evo Morales celebrated having an “absolute majority” both in the presidency and in the vote for the Chamber of Deputies and Senators.

"We won once again, there are four consecutive elections we won, it is historic and unpublished," Morales said amid a crowd that applauded him. "They (the opponents) were postponed, and we continue with our process of change, and we will continue," he said.

LEE: Alleged fraud in Bolivia's presidential elections rejected

Bolivia Vote 2019