Elections in Bolivia: Evo Morales targets the US for the rejection of his candidacy and his lawyers denounce that "the electoral fraud has already begun"

02/21/2020 - 12:00

• Clarín.com
• World

Former President Evo Morales responded on Friday to the decision of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) of Bolivia to disable his candidacy for senator for the May 3 elections, in a press conference in which he pointed against the United States.

"We fulfilled all the requirements. By instruction of the US embassy they did not approve the legality," he denounced.

"The peoples are mobilized and organized, we will continue to fight for our sovereignty and dignity."

Evo Morales speaks at a press conference. On the left His lawyer Eugenio Zaffaroni./ Photo: Lucía Merle

Morales spoke with his lawyers, who denounced the beginning of "an electoral fraud".

According to the president of the TSE, Salvador Romero, Morales does not meet the requirement to reside in Bolivia to run for election as a senator for Cochabamba.

From his Twitter account, Morales said on Thursday night that "the decision of the Supreme Electoral Court is a blow against democracy . The members of the @TSEBolivia know that I meet all the requirements to be a candidate. The ultimate goal is the proscription of the MORE."

The decision of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal is a blow against democracy. The members of @TSEBolivia know that I meet all the requirements to be a candidate. The ultimate goal is the proscription of MAS.

Then at mid-morning this Friday he summoned the press conference in Buenos Aires together with Eugenio Raúl Zaffaroni and Gustavo Ferreyra to speak on the matter.

When taking the floor, Zaffaroni considered that with the decision of the Electoral Court "an electoral fraud began by an avian way."

Zaffaroni spoke of discrimination and gave as an example the nominations of "candidates who have the same situation as Evo Morales, but who were nonetheless qualified".

"The situation of Evo Morales is compared to that of a citizen who has been out of Bolivia for ten years," he continued.

"Evo Morales is not out of Bolivia of his own free will," he added. " If he stayed in Bolivia, he was killed, " he said.

For Zaffaroni, "the goal is to eliminate Evo Morales as a senator, that he comes to the Senate and this is another step in the fraud. If Evo arrives in the Senate, he will be able to keep his party's bench together."

And he considered that the government in charge of Jeanine Añez "is playing to destroy the political force" of the former president.

With the elections of May 3, Bolivia aspires to settle the political crisis in which it is immersed by the "irregularities" detected by the Organization of American States (OAS) in the presidential elections of October 20. Morales resigned on November 10 amid a wave of violence that left more than 30 dead. Currently, he is in Argentina as an asylee.