Bolivia to hold new general elections after audit found irregularities with last month’s vote

Morales did not cite the report published by the Organization of American States (OAS), but announced the current members of Bolivia’s electoral council would be replaced. Morales, the country’s longtime socialist leader, did not name a date for the new elections. The OAS recommended that new elections be held under the umbrella of “new electoral authorities in order to offer a reliable process.” In its report, the OAS said the alleged irregularities — including failures in the chain of custody for ballots, alteration and forgery of electoral material, redirection of data to unauthorized servers and data manipulation — impacted the official vote count. “The manipulations to the computer system (used in the elections) are of such magnitude that they must be deeply investigated by the Bolivian State to get to the bottom (of this issue),” the OAS said, in part. Protests broke out in the days following the October 20 election, with demonstrators and the Bolivian opposition accusing electoral authorities of manipulating the vote count in favor of Morales, who is seeking his fourth term. Morales denied the allegations, but declared himself the winner. Three people have died in the protests, and hundreds have been injured. Various police units across the country on Saturday joined calls for Morales to resign, and the head of the Bolivian Armed Forces said his units would not confront protesters. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo commended the OAS audit and said the US supports the new election and the installation of a new electoral council. “In order to to restore credibility to the electoral process, all government officials and officials of any political organizations implicated in the flawed October 20 elections should step aside from the electoral process,” Pompeo said.Morales, one of the longest-serving heads of state in Latin America, is Bolivia’s first indigenous president. He won his first election with a campaign that promised a government focused on the needs of the country’s poor. But he’s also been accused of using the system to concentrate power. CNN’s Helen Regan and Matt Rivers contributed to this report.