Centrist Rodrigo Paz wins Bolivia's presidential runoff, topping right-wing rival

"LA PAZ, Bolivia Rodrigo Paz, a centrist senator who was never a nationally prominent figure until now, won Bolivia's presidential election on Sunday, preliminary results showed, galvanizing voters outraged by the country's economic crisis and frustrated after 20 years of rule by the Movement Toward Socialism party. "The trend is irreversible," Oscar Hassenteufel, the president of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, said of Paz's lead over his rival, former right-wing President Jorge "Tuto" Quiroga. Paz won 54% of the votes, early results showed, versus Quiroga's 45%."

"Paz took the podium Sunday night flanked by his wife, Maria Helena Urquidi, and four adult children. The hotel ballroom in Bolivia's capital of La Paz went wild, with people shouting his name and holding phones aloft. "Today, Bolivia can be certain that this will be a government that will bring solutions," he told supporters. "Bolivia breathes winds of change and renewal to move forward.""

""I've called Rodrigo Paz and wished him congratulations," he said in a somber speech, prompting jeers and cries of fraud from the audience. But Quiroga urged calm, saying that a refusal to recognize the results would "leave the country hanging." "We'd just exacerbate the problems of people suffering from the crisis," he said. "We need a mature attitude right now.""

Rodrigo Paz, a centrist senator, won Bolivia's presidency with 54% of the vote versus Jorge Quiroga's 45% in early results. Electoral tribunal president Oscar Hassenteufel described Paz's lead as irreversible. Paz celebrated with supporters in La Paz and vowed a government that will bring solutions and renewal. Quiroga conceded and urged calm despite jeers and accusations of fraud from some supporters, warning that refusing to recognize results would worsen the crisis. Paz and running mate Edman Lara drew working-class and rural voters disillusioned with MAS spending. Quiroga's embrace of the IMF for shock-treatment policies revived 1990s-era fears and alienated many voters.

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