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Schakowsky, Huffman, Rush and Chuy Garcia Seek Clarity on Outcome of Bolivian Presidential Election

November 25, 2019

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, U.S. Representatives Jan Schakowsky along with Representatives Jared Huffman, Bobby Rush, and Jesus G. "Chuy" Garcia sent the following letter to the Organization of American States seeking answers to several questions related to the controversial Bolivian Presidential election of October 20, 2019.

"Before the votes were even tallied, the Organization of American States expressed ‘deep concern and surprise at the drastic and hard-to-explain change in the trend of the preliminary results' in Bolivia's October 20th presidential election. This refers to the increase in President Evo Morales' lead in the race, after an interruption in reporting the preliminary results. It was repeated by the OAS and in hundreds of major media reports and became the basis for allegations of fraud. However, the data shows that this change was neither drastic nor hard to explain. We hope that the OAS will help clarify these issues by answering some basic questions put forth by members of the US Congress," stated the Representatives.

On November 10, 2019, Bolivian President Evo Morales of the Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) party resigned and subsequently received asylum in Mexico. Bolivia's military had recommended that Morales step down to prevent an escalation of violence after weeks of protests alleging fraud in the October 20, 2019, presidential election.

One major problem has been a false narrative that accuses Morales of fraud in the October 20th national election in Bolivia. The day after the elections, October 21, a press release from the Organization of American States (OAS) Electoral Observation Mission in Bolivia expressed "deep concern and surprise at the drastic and hard-to-explain change in the trend of the preliminary results after the closing of the polls." This suggested that some kind of fraud took place, and although the OAS provided no evidence of this, the major media have reported allegations of fraud nearly every day since October 21, citing the OAS' repeated, unfounded statements like this one.

This letter hopes to obtain answers that will lend clarity to the troubling circumstances surrounding the election.

A copy of the letter is available HERE.

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