Bolivia's Socialist candidate has strong lead in election

COCHABAMBA, Bolivia — Bolivia's Socialist presidential candidate Evo Morales, who has promised to become Washington's "nightmare," held an unexpectedly strong lead over his conservative rival in Sunday's election, according to two independent exit polls.

The wide margin means Morales, a coca farmer who has said he will end a U.S.-backed anti-drug campaign aimed at eradicating the crop used to make cocaine, will likely be declared president in January.

"If (the U.S.) wants relations, welcome," Morales said after voting, holding a news conference where piles of coca leaves were spread atop a Bolivian flag. "But no to a relationship of submission."

Raucous celebrations erupted among Morales' supporters after nationally televised exit polls showed him with a decisive lead over former President Jorge Quiroga, who was backed by Bolivia's business elite.

Morales had 45 percent of the vote and Quiroga had 33 percent in an Equipso Mori poll. A second poll by the private Ipsos Captura organization showed Morales with a slightly narrower lead of 44.5 percent to 34 percent for Quiroga. Minor candidates were getting the rest.

Morales counts Cuba's Fidel Castro and Venezuela's Hugo Chavez among his friends, along with leftists in Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay who have gained power at the ballot box this decade. After the exit polls were released, an AP reporter at Morales' home in Cochabamba said he immediately received a phone call from Chavez.

If Morales fails to win more than 50 percent of the popular vote, Bolivia's newly elected congress must decide the presidency — a parliamentary process that would involve some coalition building and likely be a moderating influence on Morales, even with his unexpectedly wide margin.

"Evo! Evo!" his supporters chanted in this coca-growing region. In the capital of La Paz, caravans of honking cars paraded down avenues, their passengers shouting "Evo Presidente!"

Morales, 46, has promised to reverse years of sometimes violent U.S.-backed efforts to eradicate coca fields. Bolivia is the world's third-largest grower of coca, a plant that has traditional, legal uses among the country's Indians but also is used to make cocaine.

The Aymara Indian street activist on Sunday also referred to his status as a symbol for many of Bolivia's long-downtrodden Indians, a majority in this country of 8.5 million people.