UPDATE 1-Bolivian opposition candidate invited to vote audit - government

Bolivian opposition candidate Carlos Mesa is invited to participate in an audit of votes cast in the recent presidential election, Vice President Alvaro Garcia said on Tuesday, as protesters prepared for another day of street blockades. Bolivia has been convulsed by protests since Oct. 20, when it's Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) abruptly suspended publication of results from an electronic count that eventually gave President Evo Morales a fourth term, leading to accusations of fraud from Mesa and his supporters.

Morales, who has been in office for nearly 14 years and is Latin America's longest-serving leader, has said the Organization of American States (OAS) will audit the election and that he will go to a second-round if irregularities are found. The TSE and Morales, 60, both deny any election fraud.

"We, in the most transparent and secure way, confident in the sovereignty of the people, have invited an international audit," Garcia told reporters in the early morning. "We have called on the OAS and brother countries so they can clear up any doubt with respect to the malicious campaign of the losing candidate, who refuses to accept the decision of the Bolivian people," Garcia said.

"We want to ask Carlos Mesa, the losing candidate, to join the audit," he added. "We await a speedy and affirmative response." Mesa, who has said he is confronting authoritarianism and will either end up in prison or the presidency, did not immediately respond to Garcia's invitation.

In middle-class southern La Paz, opposition protesters were preparing street barricades of rope, wooden boards, and sheets of metal. Five protesters were injured by gunshots on Monday in the industrial city of Santa Cruz. The police have said they are investigating the incident.

 

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