Bolivia polls: Morales' vote approaches 60 percent

La Paz, Oct 15 (IANS/EFE) With fewer than 10 percent of the ballots left to be counted, leftist incumbent Evo Morales took 59.88 percent of the vote in last weekend's presidential election, Bolivia's TSE electoral court said Wednesday.

That figure is in line with the results of exit polls released hours after the polls closed Sunday.

Cement magnate Samuel Doria Medina stands in second place, with 25.07 percent, trailed by former president Jorge Quiroga, who picked up 9.44 percent of the vote.

The TSE, which had originally promised to release returns based on at least 70 percent of the ballots by midnight Sunday, blamed the delay on problems at individual polling places and a need to implement extra security measures after receiving anonymous threats from hackers to sabotage the process.

Morales, the first indigenous president in the history of the Indian-majority Andean nation, and Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera were elected in 2005 and won a second term in 2009.

While the new constitution drafted and enacted under their administration limits the president to two five-year terms, the incumbents were allowed to run again this year because they were first elected under Bolivia's old charter.

--IANS/EFE

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