Exit polls last night put President Evo Morales on course for a big victory in the Bolivian electionstomorrow, bolstering his empowerment of the indigenous majority under a socialist banner.
An unofficial count of 60% of the vote by the Equipos-Mori polling firm said Bolivia's first indigenous president had won 61% of the ballots. Polls by three private television channels, ATB, Uno and PAT, echoed the prediction. Morales' closest challenger in a field of nine, the centre-right former state governor and military officer Manfred Reyes, won 29 %, according to Equipos-Mori.
Jubilant supporters waving Bolivian flags jumped up and down in La Paz's central Murillo square last night an hour after the polls closed, chanting "Evo! Evo!"