Former Bolivian President Evo Morales says new elections can be held without him

Meanwhile, interim leader Anez says if Morales returns to
Bolivia he’ll have to ‘answer to justice for electoral
fraud’.

Former Bolivian President Evo Morales would like to return to
Bolivia from Mexico but fresh elections could be held without him,
he told Reuters news agency on Friday.

Morales resigned under pressure on Sunday after weeks of
protests and violence following an October 20 election that awarded
an outright win to him but was tarnished by widespread allegations
of fraud. An Organization of American States (OAS) audit of the
vote found widespread irregularities.

Morales then fled to Mexico after being granted asylum. He told
the Associated Press on Thursday that he could say he was still the
president because his resignation was never accepted by
Congress.

Earlier this week, Jeanine Anez declared herself interim
president, saying every person in the line of succession ahead of
her – all of them Morales backers – had resigned. The country’s
Constitutional Court issued a statement backing her claim that she
didn’t need to be confirmed by Congress, a body controlled by
Morales’s Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) party.

‘Answer to justice’
On Friday, Anez rejected Morales’s claim that he resigned and left
the country because of military pressure and threats of violence
against his close collaborators.

“Evo Morales went on his own. Nobody kicked him out,” she said
at a news conference.

She said he is free to return, but has to “answer to justice for
electoral fraud”.

“Justice has to do its work without political pressures,” she
added.

On Thursday, Anez said she wants to mend bridges with MAS, and
hold new elections. But she said that Morales would not be welcome
as a candidate.

Some politicians from Morales’s party and legislators from
Anez’s interim government had indicated that they had struck a
political agreement to bring peace to the country and pave the road
to a new vote in 90 days. But Anez said on Friday that the initial
deal had failed, without giving details.

Morales told Reuters on Friday that he did not know who would be
the MAS candidate. It would be for the people to decide, he
said.

Morales supporters remain in the streets
Much of the opposition to Morales sprang from his refusal to accept
a referendum that would have forbidden him from running for a
fourth term.

Although some supporters became disenchanted by his insistence
on holding on to power, Morales remains popular, especially among
indigenous communities.

Since his resignation, Morales’s supporters have marched in the
streets, setting up blockades that forced closure of schools and
caused petrol shortages in the capital.

“Evo: Friend, the people are with you!” shouted largely
indigenous protesters in the town of Sacaba on Friday.

Many protesters waved the national flag and the multicolour
“Wiphala” flag that represents indigenous peoples. They said they
did not accept Anez as interim president.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES