Bolivian interim leader proposes new elections

LA PAZ, Bolivia - Bolivia's Jeanine Anez, leader of an interim government supported by the opposition, sent a bill on holding new elections to the legislature on Wednesday, amid escalating violence that has claimed at least 30 lives over the past month.

The unrest stems from the disputed results of a general election on Oct 20 and the subsequent resignation of Evo Morales as president and his political exile.

Officials raised the death toll by eight a day after security forces cleared a blockade of a fuel plant by anti-government protesters in the city of El Alto, near La Paz.

The demonstrators had tried to blow up the plant with explosives, which could have caused a "massive tragedy", interim Defense Minister Fernando Lopez said.

Bolivia has been in turbulence since last month. Morales resigned on Nov 10 after weeks of protests and pressure from the security forces, but his supporters oppose the interim government that took his place.

The bill that Anez sent to the legislature on Wednesday would allow the scheduling of new elections, without providing a date.

"This bill can be perfected and serve as a basis for consensus," she said at a news conference. She was referring to the legislators of Morales' Movement Toward Socialism party, which has a majority in congress.

The bill also calls for the creation of a new Supreme Electoral Tribunal, or TSE, to oversee the process.

Anez, a conservative lawmaker, declared herself interim president after Morales and vice-president Alvaro Garcia Linera resigned.

Interim Justice Minister Alvaro Coimbra said the bill submitted to lawmakers has "three main objectives", which were recommended by the Organization of American States and the European Union: to declare the results of the Oct 20 elections null and void, call for new elections, and designate new members to the TSE.

The bill speeds up the usual procedure by calling for the members of the electoral body to be designated within 15 days of the law's approval.

If the bill fails to win approval in the Legislative Assembly, with the left-leaning Movement Towards Socialism holding its majority, the interim government said it would resort to holding elections by decree.

Morales is in Mexico, which granted him political asylum. His supporters continue to protest his ouster.

He has criticized the Organization of American States, whose investigators concluded there were flaws in last month's election. In Washington, the organization passed a resolution to help Bolivia hold elections quickly.

Xinhua - Agencies