“This was a debate on two models: nationalisation or privatisation,” Bolivian President Evo Morales told a large gathering of supporters after being re-elected with a large majority on October 12. “Nationalisation won with more than 60 percent.”
As a result of policies such as nationalisation of key industries and redistribution of wealth, United Nations figures show Bolivia led the Latin American region in the past decade in terms of poverty reduction, with a 32.2% dip compared to 12 years ago.
“There is a deep feeling, not just in Bolivia, but in the Americas, of freedom, of a triumph of the anti-imperialists," he said as the crowd chanted: “Homeland yes, colonialism no.”
TeleSUR English said that day: “Morales and Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera along with ministers as well as union and social movement leaders, addressed the crowd -- large despite a ban on public transport in effect until midnight -- from the balcony of the governmental palace.”
Morales told the crowd: “We're not alone, this triumph is dedicated to Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez.”
“Only a people that is organized ... the social sectors, the workers ... is how we will free ourselves, democratically,” he said.
TeleSUR English said on October 13: “Elections were also held for the 130 seat Chamber of Deputies, where MAS won 117 of the seats — 13 more than before — results for the Senate elections were not immediately available but are expected to be consistent with the results in the lower chamber.”
“With two thirds of the seats in the Congress, Morales and the MAS party will be free to implement their program and policies.”
Although offical results were not finalsed, Morales said the MAS had won more than two thirds. He added: “For the first time in the history of Bolivia, an anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist movement like the MAS won in Santa Cruz [the traditional opposition state].”
In a TeleSUR interview, Morales also said the final results were likely to give him as much as 67% of the vote. Exit polls had given his nearest oppoenent, cement tycoon Samuel Doria Medina, just 24% of the vote.
Morales said he recieved such high voter supporter because of his opposition to the privatisation of basic services. Platforms that aimed to do that were “strongly rejected” by Bolivians in the elections, he said.
Morales' victory was hailed by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who said it was a victory for "the ALBA bloc". ALBA is the Bolivarian Alliance of the People's of Our America, an anti-imperialist political and economic bloc first set up by Cuba and Venezuela in 2004 as an alternative to the US pushed Free Trade Area of the Americas.
“[A] great victory for the people of ALBA,” Maduro tweeted. Bolivia is one of the eight member states of ALBA.
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