2019 Bolivian protests
Protests broke out across Bolivia on 21 October 2019 following the result announcement of the first round of the 2019 Bolivian general election.
Background
On Sunday 20 October 2019, the first round of voting for all government positions was held. The Supreme Electoral Tribunal released two sets of counts shortly after the vote. First was an exit poll that verified 95.6% of votes that showed incumbent President of Bolivia Evo Morales as having 9.33 percentage points over his main opposition and former President, Carlos Mesa. Leading by less than 10 percentage points indicates the vote must continue to a second run-off round. The complete count then appeared as provisional results on a website with routine live updates. At the point of 83.8% of votes in the complete count having been verified, the website showed Morales at 45.3% and Mesa at 38.2%; this also reflected a less than 10 point lead.[1]
After this, however, the website saw no updates for 24 hours. During this period, the Organization of American States (OAS) released a statement expressing concern over legitimate vote counts; Morales also said he was confident that there would be no need for another round. When the website updated again on the evening of Monday 21 October, it showed a 10.12 point lead for Morales. The OAS again expressed concern, now over what they called a "drastic" change in vote outcomes.[1]
In 2016, Morales had held a referendum to annul a law limiting Bolivian Presidents to two terms; though he did not win the referendum, the Bolivian Supreme Tribunal of Justice later ruled that limiting terms was in violation of a person's human rights.[1]
Protests
With many Bolivians seeing the result of the vote, which would give Morales a fourth term as President, as illegitimate, protests broke out across the country.[1]
In the cities of Sucre and Tarija, protestors burnt ballot boxes; thousands of people marched on the capital La Paz to protest outside the hotel where the Electoral Tribunal were holding the count.[1] From the city of Santa Cruz, Mesa announced that his party did not recognize the vote; opposition groups here also organized a mass general strike that happened on Tuesday 22 October.[1]