Presidential candidates proposed by Bolivia's ex-President Evo Morales have been sidelined by his own leftist Movement for Socialism (MAS), who said that its candidates will be appointed by public organizations in the near future, speaker for the upper house Monica Eva Copa Murga told journalists on Tuesday
LA PAZ (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 22nd January, 2020) Presidential candidates proposed by Bolivia's ex-President Evo Morales have been sidelined by his own leftist Movement for Socialism (MAS), who said that its candidates will be appointed by public organizations in the near future, speaker for the upper house Monica Eva Copa Murga told journalists on Tuesday.
"We consider candidates announced by Evo Morales as a suggestion because it is here, in Bolivia, where public organizations of MAS will make the [final] decision on our candidates," the speaker said, adding that talks with party members still continue.
Murga joined a number of organizations and MAS leaders who opposed Morales' two candidates for the posts of the country's president and prime minister, former Economy Minister Luis Arce Catacora and former Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca.
Under pressure to resign from the protesting public and the nation's military, Morales stepped down from his fourth term in office in early November 2019 and fled to Mexico. After that, the entire top leadership of the country also resigned and sought asylum in the Mexican embassy in La Paz. In the meantime, the upper house's second vice speaker, Jeanine Anez, declared herself interim president, and the new authorities announced a presidential election for mid-March. Morales was banned from running for president in the upcoming vote. He told Sputnik late last year that he expected a MAS candidate to secure victory in the election.
