Exit Polls Show a Close Presidential Election
A mining executive and a former military captain were in a tight race in an election seen as a challenge for democracy in Bolivia, South America’s poorest country.
Since Bolivia’s political system requires majority support for an outright victory, the president will be chosen by a new Congress from the two top vote-getters--multimillionaire Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada and longtime Cochabamba Mayor Manfred Reyes Villa.
Sanchez de Lozada, president from 1993 to 1997 and an owner of Bolivia’s largest mining company, had 21.7% of the vote, while Reyes Villa had 20.2%, according to local media projections, based on unofficial results from 93% of the votes.
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