LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Bolivians have overwhelmingly cast a no-confidence vote for the ruling socialist party in yesterday's presidential elections. With nearly all ballots counted, a right-wing former president and a centrist are heading to an unprecidented runoff later this year. It's a stunning defeat for the left in Bolivia that has dominated the South American nation's politics for the past two decades. NPR's Carrie Kahn reports.
CARRIE KAHN, BYLINE: In a surprise showing, centrist and longtime politician Rodrigo Paz Pereira led yesterday's vote, even though he'd been polling near the bottom in a field of nine candidates.
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RODRIGO PAZ PEREIRA: (Speaking Spanish).
KAHN: "I want to congratulate the people of Bolivia because they said they want change," Paz told reporters late last night. Yesterday, at a downtown voting station, 35-year-old car mechanic Sebastian Gutierrez says he wants that change fast. He's never experienced such economic chaos in his lifetime. He voted for right-wing former president Jorge Quiroga.
SEBASTIAN GUTIERREZ: (Speaking Spanish).
KAHN: "Hopefully, he'll get us out of this economic crisis now," he says. This is a seismic shift from the politics that has dominated Bolivia for the last two decades under the socialist MAS party. It rose to power in the early 2000s with the election of Bolivia's first Indigenous president, Evo Morales, who funneled the country's vast natural gas revenues into dramatically cutting poverty.
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EVO MORALES: Buenos dias. Buenos dias.
KAHN: Yesterday, greeting poll workers as he voted, Morales lashed out about his poor political fortunes. He's been barred from running for office and faces arrest on statutory rape charges, which he denies. And his party is in disarray. Gas reserves have dried up in recent years, as well as vital dollars, making everything - especially imported gasoline - scarce and expensive. The highly unpopular current president didn't even run. Voter Carola Medinaceli, who owns a small bakery in La Paz, says she can't keep up with rising costs and can't pass them off to her customers, either, who are also struggling.
CAROLA MEDINACELI: (Speaking Spanish).
KAHN: "More than anything else, this was a no vote for the current government," she says. The runoff election - without a socialist on the ballot - will take place October 19.
Carrie Kahn, NPR News.
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