Bolivian President Evo Morales resigned Sunday amid growing opposition after an international audit found the results of last month’s election could not be validated because of “serious irregularities.”
Morales said he was stepping down “for the good of the country,” which has been roiled by protests in the days following the October 20 election. Three people have died in the protests and hundreds have been injured.
Calls for Morales’ resignation had grown over the weekend, and on Sunday, the head of the Bolivian Armed Forces, Cmdr. Williams Kaliman, asked Morales to step down in order to restore stability and peace.
Morales claimed he’d been forced out in a coup – a charge echoed by his allies in South America, but denied by the opposition movement, which said this was a fight for “democracy and peace.”
“I regret this deeply,” Morales said on national television. He will send his resignation letter to Congress in the next few hours, he said.
Demonstrators and the Bolivian opposition had accused electoral authorities of manipulating the vote count in favor of Morales, the country’s longtime socialist leader. Morales denied the allegations and declared himself the winner.
Morales was one of the longest-serving heads of state in Latin America. H