We're now at 91.4% of votes counted and so things are pretty much set in stone with maybe half a point here or there of variation possible. The MAS party (i.e. "vote Evo") is at 62.5% of the national vote but here's how MAS is doing in the nine departments of Bolivia in order, best to worst (with just a few votes to count, remember). All data taken from the official election site, right here:
- La Paz 80.25%
- Oruro 79.16%
- Potosà 78.05%
- Cochabamba 66.2%
- Chuquisaca 56.05%
- Tarija 51.09%
- Pando 44.51% (PPB-Convergencia wins with 51.07%)
- Santa Cruz 40.9% (PPB-Convergencia wins with 52.61%)
- Beni 37.64% (PPB-Convergencia wins with 53.17%)
Or in other words, Evo Morales has swept the board. No surprises about the high percentages in his traditional strongholds of La Paz, Oruro and Potosà of course, but the two thirds of voters in Cochabamba is a remarkable result. Also noteworthy is that MAS has scored wins in Chuquisaca (the Sucre region) and an overall majority in Tarija too (supposedly a bastion of anti-Evo feeling, remember).
The most significant opposition remains in Santa Cruz but even there MAS has scored more than 40% of the votes. Also worth noting that of the 15 provinces inside the department of Santa Cruz, Evo Morales has won a majority in nine of them. The bulk of the popular vote goes against Evo in the main city of Santa Cruz, but the outlying areas are as MAS Party as the rest of the country. In other words, the whole of the "massive controversial splitting in two of a whole country" rests on the shoulders of the 427,000 people in the city of Santa Cruz that have voted against Evo (while 269,000 have voted for him there). If that's as bad as it gets, then those that still call Bolivia a country divided are on very shaky ground. The sparsely populated states of Beni and Pando have a lower percentage of votes for MAS, but calling them decisive is like pointing to Alabama's 2008 voting tendencies as evidence that the USA is split down the middle and on the brink of civil war.
Finally, the myth of a rigged vote is easily disproved. All the neutral observers in Bolivia for the vote (including Mercosur, the OAS, the Carter Center and a couple of others that I can't remember offhand) remarked on the totally free, fair transparent and democratic manner of last sunday's vote, with special mention made of the new registry system that assures equity. Sorry O'Grady, you've been caught making shit up again.
UPDATE on the update: 96% now counted and MAS holds 63.12%