SANTIAGO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd October, 2019) The Organization of American States (OAS) will hold a special meeting on Wednesday to discuss the results of the Bolivian presidential election, OAS announced after the Bolivian government invited it to recheck the vote counting process, which has raised some concerns.
"The Permanent Council of the Organization of American States will hold a special meeting TOMORROW, Wednesday, October 23, at 11:00 EST (16:00 GMT) in Simon Bolívar Hall at OAS headquarters in Washington, D.C., to consider the 'Situation in Bolivia' at the request of the Permanent Missions of Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, the United States and Venezuela," OAS said in a Tuesday statement.
Earlier on Tuesday, Bolivian Foreign Minister Diego Pary announced at a press conference that his country's government had sent an official note to OAS inviting it to carry out an "audit", to check the entire process of vote counting in the presidential election.
"We are interested as a Government that the whole process has the necessary transparency, that all the votes of the Bolivians count," Pary stressed, as quoted by La Republica newspaper on Tuesday.
The Bolivian Supreme Electoral Tribunal announced late on Monday that with 95.43 percent of the votes counted, Morales had 46.86 percent, while Mesa had 36.72 percent of the votes, leaving Bolivia's current president with a 10.13 percent margin.
To win in the first round of the presidential election in Bolivia, a candidate needs to get more than 50 percent of the votes, or, as an alternative, at least 40 percent with a margin of 10 percent from the closest opponent.
Mesa has refused to recognize the election results and has accused the Bolivian government of election fraud.
The OAS expressed concerns on Tuesday over the confusing situation with regard to the vote count in Bolivia, recalling that preliminary results released on Sunday showed that there would be a second round of elections.
