La Paz, November 5 (RHC)-- Bolivian President Evo Morales insisted Tuesday that allegations of alleged fraud made by the opposition are a pretext for executing a coup. He spoke to thousands of supporters from different social movements as they gathered in the center of La Paz.
The president said that fraud is an "invention" given the impossibility of the right to govern the South American nation through the polls.
Social movements remain in the streets of Bolivia in support of President Morales, who was re-elected after the vote on October 20th, with 47 percent of popular support, 10 points ahead of the opposition candidate Carlo Mesa. The Bolivian constitution states that with such difference, the winner of the first round avoids a runoff.
"These mobilizations are not in defense of Evo but of the people themselves," said the indigenous leader as he thanked the social organizations gathered to defend democracy.
Opposition leaders have rejected the outcome of the elections and claim there was fraud. However, they also refuse to participate in the audit carried out by the Organization of American States (OAS) together with experts from Mexico, Paraguay and Spain.
Evo Morales rejected violence against some Bolivians explaining that such attacks have racist and discriminatory roots to them. "I thought we had buried hatred, discrimination, insult for life... we know we have differences in character, but that's why we are a Plurinational State," he argued.
He also urged the people to defend the process of change that began with his first government and that has led Bolivia to become a model of economic growth and distribution of wealth in the region.