President Evo Morales of Bolivia announced he would call a new vote in a televised address in El Alto, Bolivia, on Sunday.Credit...Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters
Faced with unrelenting protests over the results of disputed elections in which he claimed victory, President Evo Morales of Bolivia announced on Sunday that he would call new elections.
The announcement came hours after the Organization of American States released a preliminary report of its audit of the Oct. 20 vote. The group, whose charter promotes democracy among member organizations in the Western Hemisphere, said that it would not certify Mr. Morales’s victory and that the results should be annulled because of widespread irregularities.
The company that provided vote-counting machines for the election had also disavowed the results.
Speaking in a televised address on Sunday, Mr. Morales, Bolivia’s first Indigenous leader, called for peace and said he would replace the Electoral Tribunal before holding a new vote in the South American country. He did not specify a date for the repeat election.
The tribunal was criticized by the opposition as excessively loyal to Mr. Morales and accused of widespread electoral fraud.
The new vote “will allow the Bolivian people to democratically elect their new leaders,” Mr. Morales said from his traditional stronghold in the city of El Alto, outside La Paz. “I want to ask everyone to lower all the tension.”
Mr. Morales pivoted on Sunday after his grip on power grew tenuous over the weekend, when police units in most of Bolivia’s major cities mutinied and joined antigovernment protesters. The military also distanced itself from the president, saying it would remain neutral in the political crisis.
Lacking the support of security forces, Mr. Morales, who came to power in 2006, declared, “A coup is underway,” and he called on his supporters to take to the streets to defend his government, raising fears of widespread partisan violence.
The unrest spread El Alto by Saturday night, and government supporters and protesters clashed on the streets, according to local news reports.
In the countryside, where Mr. Morales remains popular with poor farmers, government supporters blocked and attacked with stones several caravans of protesters heading to demonstrations in La Paz.
It was unclear if Mr. Morales’s accession to a new election would pacify the country. Some opposition leaders previously said that they would not accept a new vote with Mr. Morales as candidate.
They had accused the president of illegally changing the Constitution to allow him to run for an unprecedented fourth term. The opposition also claimed the October vote was rigged.
The outcome of the vote has been in dispute since election officials released preliminary results that pointed to a runoff between Mr. Morales and Carlos Mesa, a former president.
The ballot count suddenly stopped. Election officials did not provide updates for nearly 24 hours, and gave no explanation.
When the election results were finally updated, officials reversed themselves and said Mr. Morales was leading by 10 percentage points, the margin required to avoid a runoff.
That announcement sent protesters into the streets. The demonstrations continued through Saturday, when tens of thousands of people rallied in Santa Cruz, demanding that Mr. Morales resign by Monday.
Have you been affected by the bushfires? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk
Prime Minister Scott Morrison - who was heckled by a climate change protester as he briefed reporters - refused to be drawn on whether climate change could have contributed to the fires.
"My only thoughts today are with those who have lost their lives and their families," he said.
What is the threat to Sydney?
Sydney is facing potentially catastrophic conditions for the first time since new fire warnings were introduced a decade ago. The Hunter region to the north is also at risk.
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Temperatures are expected to reach 37C in the city on Tuesday. Conditions are expected to be worse than on Friday, when the firestorms began tearing through parts of eastern Australia.
"Under these conditions, these fires will spread quickly and threaten homes and lives," NSW Rural Fire Service said in a statement.
Schools in vulnerable areas will be closed and firefighters from New Zealand have been flown in to help as weary emergency crews prepare for a fresh onslaught.
Mr Morrison says the military could also be called upon to support the 1,300 firefighters working in the two states.
Hundreds of civilians have also volunteered to help in affected areas.
What's the latest?
In Queensland, thousands of people spent the night in evacuation centres while officials assessed whether it was safe for them to return home.
Fire officials in NSW have confirmed that more than 150 homes have been destroyed.
Two firefighters were injured when a tree fell onto their truck in the Nambucca Heads area of NSW, officials said. They were treated at the scene and transferred to hospital in a stable condition.
Although cooler weather on Saturday night provided some reprieve, it is feared that high temperatures, low humidity and strong winds forecast from the middle of the week will fuel further fires that officials will be unable to contain.
Who were the victims?
While clearing affected areas on Friday, fire crews discovered the body of one victim in a burned out car near Glen Innes, about 550km (340 miles) north of Sydney.
In the same town on the same day, a woman was found suffering from severe burns. She was rushed to hospital but died shortly afterwards.
Carol Sparks, the mayor of Glen Innes, said on Sunday that the town's residents were traumatised.
"The fire was as high as 20 ft [6m] and raging with 80 km/h [50 mph] winds," she told Australian broadcaster ABC. "It was absolutely horrific for the people that were impacted."
On Saturday, NSW police confirmed that a third person had died after a body was found in a burnt-out home near Taree, a town about 300km north of Sydney.
Police said the home belonged to a woman aged 63, but that they wouldn't be able to confirm the person's identity until a post-mortem had been carried out.
In NSW, the worst-hit state, crews have fought hundreds of fires since last month, when two people died while trying to protect their home.
Water-bombing aircraft are often flying long distances because of the difficulty of accessing water in dry areas. In some cases authorities have drilled bores to keep up with demand.
"We've very mindful of the scarcity of water and how precious it is, but the reality is we can't do firefighting without water," Mr Fitzsimmons said.
Is this linked to climate change?
Australia's fire season risks growing longer and more intense due to climate change, according to scientists.
LUCKNOW/AYODHYA, India, India (Reuters) - Dozens of people in India have been detained on suspicion of publishing inflammatory social media posts and setting off celebratory firecrackers after the Supreme Court ruled to give a disputed religious site to Hindus, police said on Sunday.
Police officers stand guard at a security barricade near a temple after Supreme Court's verdict on a disputed religious site, in Ayodhya, India, November 10, 2019. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui
The Supreme Court awarded the bitterly contested site in the northern town of Ayodhya to Hindus on Saturday, dealing a defeat to Muslims who also claim the land that has sparked some of the country’s bloodiest riots since independence.
In 1992, a Hindu mob destroyed the 16th-century Babri Mosque on the site, triggering riots in which about 2,000 people, most of them Muslims, were killed, but no major violence was reported after the court ruling on Saturday or on Sunday
About 37 people were arrested and 12 cases were registered in Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state and the site of the contested land, state police said.
At least one person was arrested in the state capital of Lucknow for making “inappropriate remarks” on social media and using threatening language.
“Police are appealing to residents to not misuse social media,” Kalanidhi Naithani, senior superintendent of police in Lucknow, said late on Saturday.
In another part of the state, at least seven men were arrested for setting off firecrackers or creating disturbances while distributing sweets in celebration, police said.
The Home Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for information on arrests.
Before Saturday’s verdict, the government deployed thousands of members of paramilitary forces and police in Ayodhya and other sensitive places. Hindu groups told members not to celebrate publicly.
The court’s decision paves the way for the construction of a Hindu temple on the site, a proposal long supported by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Hindu-nationalist party.
Hindus believe the site is the birthplace of Lord Ram, a physical incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu, and say the site was holy for Hindus long before the Muslim Mughals, India’s most prominent Islamic rulers, built the Babri mosque there in 1528.
The Supreme Court called the 1992 demolition of the mosque illegal but handed the plot of 2.77 acres (1.1 hectares), about the size of a soccer field, to a Hindu group. It directed that another plot of five acres in Ayodhya be provided to a Muslim group that contested the case.
Some legal scholars and Muslim activists saw the judgement as unfair, particularly given that the 1992 razing of the mosque was deemed illegal.
“Why has the 2.77 acres been gifted to the very elements who were party to this?,” Syeda Hameed, the president of the Muslim Women’s Forum, wrote in the Hindustan Times, referring to the mosque’s destruction.
Muslim leaders have called for peace between majority Hindus and Muslims, who constitute 14% of its 1.3 billion people.
Some seemed to have resigned themselves to the decision.
“I am disheartened with the verdict and leaving it to Allah,” said Mohammad Azam Qadri, a community leader in Ayodhya.
Writing by Abhirup Roy; Editing by Alexandra Ulmer, Robert Birsel
He told reporters that he made the decision "to reduce all tension" and pacify Bolivia.
Members of the new electoral board will be chosen by the country's parliament, he added.
What did the OAS say?
In its preliminary report on Saturday, the OAS said it had found "clear manipulations" of Bolivia's voting system and it could not verify the result of the 20 October race.
The international body concluded it was unlikely that Mr Morales had won by the 10% margin required for a victory in the first round.
"The manipulations to the computer system are of such magnitude that they must be deeply investigated by the Bolivian State to get to the bottom of and assign responsibility in this serious case," it said.
Why has there been opposition to the election result?
Bolivia has been rattled by protests, strikes and road blocks since the night of the election.
Tensions first flared after the results count was inexplicably paused for 24 hours.
The final result gave Mr Morales slightly more than the 10% lead he needed to win outright, giving him a fourth consecutive term.
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Carlos Mesa, the election's runner up, asked Bolivia's congress on Friday to pass an emergency bill to prepare for new elections.
In an escalation of protests on Saturday, opposition supporters overran two state-run media outlets in La Paz and forced them off air.
On the same day a number of uniformed police officers also joined crowds of demonstrators in several major cities.
Mr Morales condemned the seizure of the TV and radio stations, but Bolivia's defence minister said there were no plans to deploy the military to quell the police "mutiny".
Bolivia's armed forces have also called for the crisis to be solved by democratic means.
Bolivia's governing party has called on its supporters to defend President Evo Morales, after police in some cities joined protests against him.
Demonstrators accuse Mr Morales, Latin America's longest-serving leader, of rigging last month's election to secure a fourth term.
On Saturday, opposition protesters overran two state-run media outlets in La Paz and forced them off air.
Mr Morales denies any wrongdoing and says he will not resign.
He also condemned the seizure of the TV and radio stations , tweeting: "They [the protesters] say they defend democracy, but they behave as if they were in a dictatorship."
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The country's defence minister said there were no plans to deploy the military to quell the police "mutiny".
For their part, Bolivia's armed forces said they would never go against the people and that the crisis needs to be solved by democratic means.
So far, three people have died and hundreds have been injured in the unrest, which has lasted more than four weeks.
The president's main rival, Carlos Mesa, has rejected an offer of dialogue - instead insisting on new elections and Mr Morales' resignation.
What do we know about the demonstrations?
Mr Morales' party Movement for Socialism called on its supporters to come to La Paz and "defend" the results of the controversial election.
The previous day's demonstrations, on Friday, were the first to include large numbers of police - though the scale was unclear.
Uniformed officers joined protesters in cities including La Paz and Sucre.
Speaking to local media, several uniformed officers called on Mr Morales to resign - and said they would stop him from turning Bolivia into a dictatorship like his allies in Cuba and Venezuela.
In a tweet, President Morales denounced the protests as an "attack on the rule of law".
Defence Minister Javier Zabaleta, speaking with state television, called for calm and said he was confident police would "continue to fulfil their constitutional job to safeguard the people".
Bolivia has been rattled by protests, strikes and roadblocks since the country held a presidential election on 20 October.
Tensions first flared on the night of the presidential election after the results count was inexplicably paused for 24 hours. The final result gave Mr Morales slightly more than the 10-percentage-point lead he needed to win outright in the first round of the race.
The Organization of American States (OAS) is conducting an audit of the votes, and the results are expected to be published next week.
But Mr Mesa - the candidate who finished second - has spoken out against the audit, saying that his party was not consulted.
A former president himself, he has asked Bolivia's congress to pass an emergency bill to prepare for new elections.
