US offering help in May election casts doubts: Morales

ANKARA

Former Bolivian President Evo Morales said Tuesday that U.S. involvement in the vote count of the upcoming Bolivian election casts doubt on its transparency.

"The US technical assistance for the counting of votes in the May 3 elections only generates more doubts in the electoral process, and creates suspicion of a possible fraud," Morales said on Twitter. "We call on the international community to make the elections transparent.”

Bolivians will elect their next president, vice president and other legislators after months of political strife.

Having reached the constitutional limit of two terms in the office, Morales will not be able to seek another term.

The Movement for Socialism (MAS) party headed by Morales, will be represented by Luis Arce Catacora -- decided after two days of "intense debate" in Argentina with party leaders and the Pact of Unity -- a national alliance of Bolivian grassroots organizations in support of indigenous and agrarian rights.

After showing his will to run as a deputy, Bolivia's Supreme Electoral Tribunal found Morales "ineligible to run for a seat in the country's senate."

A study conducted by the Massachusetts’s Institute of Technology Election Data and Science Lab in the U.S. said in late February "no evidence of fraud" was found in presidential elections in October, which resulted in the ouster of Morales.

The study determined "it is very likely that Morales won the required 10 percentage point margin to win in the first round of the election on October 20, 2019."

It also accused the Organization of American States (OAS) regional bloc of "greatly misleading the media and the public" about what happened in elections.

Turmoil in Bolivia began when Morales won a fourth term in office -- which was beyond the legal limit -- in October and faced immediate resistance from opposition parties that challenged election results. Protesters took to the streets claiming the ballot was rigged.

The indigenous leader said he was the winner of the election in the first round, and if there was any rigging, it was the work of the OAS, not his party's.

After weeks of upheaval, Morales resigned under pressure from the military and moved to Mexico, where he was offered political asylum. He was then granted asylum in Argentina.

Meanwhile, conservative Senator Jeanine Anez proclaimed herself interim president.