Evo Morales can't run in next election, Bolivia's interim leader says

Bolivia's interim President said on Thursday that Evo Morales would not be welcome to take part in new elections, after the longtime leftist leader resigned and fled to Mexico amid rising pressure over vote-rigging allegations.

Jeanine Añez, 52, who took over on Tuesday, is battling to bring calm to a sharply divided Bolivia that has been rocked by protests since the Oct. 20 election, which was won by Morales but marred by widespread allegations of fraud.

Morales resigned on Sunday after a damning audit found electoral irregularities and the military withdrew its backing and urged him to step down to help restore calm to the country. Morales and his vice-president Alvaro Garcia, who also resigned, are now in Mexico, which offered them asylum.

"Evo Morales does not qualify to run for a fourth term. It's because [he did] that we've had all this convulsion, and because of this that so many Bolivians have been demonstrating in the streets," Añez told a news conference on Thursday.

The conservative former senator said Morales' Movement for Socialism (MAS) party, which has a majority in Congress, was welcome to participate in the vote.

"They should start searching for a candidate," she said.

Añez did not give a specific date for the election, but under the constitution she has 90 days to do so since declaring herself interim leader by invoking the constitutional line of succession this week.

Morales has said he was the victim of a coup, with his supporters continuing to agitate on his behalf with marches and skirmishes in the streets of La Paz and nearby El Alto.

Meanwhile, Añez is shoring up her position. She has appointed a new military chief and cabinet members, while MAS lawmakers seemed to have backed away from plans to try to nullify her interim appointment.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Bolivia was on the brink of chaos and there is now a power vacuum.

Speaking to reporters in Brasilia at an economic summit, Putin said he hoped that whoever comes to power in Bolivia would continue to co-operate with Moscow.

Not all recognizing Añez

Russia, a key ally for Bolivia under Morales, said it would work with Añez, while pointing out she had not been formally sworn in.

"But clearly, she will be recognized as Bolivia's new leader until the question of a new president is resolved with elections," Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov said.

The United States, Brazil, Colombia and Britain have also recognized Añez. Other governments in South America, including neighbouring Peru and Argentina, have held off.

Canada updated its position on the fluid and chaotic situation in Bolivia Thursday, saying it would work with and support the caretaker administration of Añez — while still stopping short of formally recognizing her presidency. Canadian officials also issued a fresh advisories Thursday for travel in El Alto and consular access in La Paz.

Morales, in power since 2006, defied term limits and a 2016 referendum against lifting them by running for office this year, after a Bolivian court packed with loyalists gave him a green light to run indefinitely, citing his "human rights."

In protests since the October vote, at least 10 people have been killed, the public prosecutor's office said, mostly by projectiles from firearms.

Morales, tweeting from Mexico, has called for dialogue to help "pacify" Bolivia, asking the United Nations and the Roman Catholic Church to help find a solution.

In an interview with Spanish daily El Pais published on Wednesday, Morales said he was still legally president because his resignation had not yet been accepted by the legislature, but added he considered Añez the de facto leader and suggested he would not try to run in the next election.

A MAS legislator, asking not to be named, said the party wanted to reach a deal with its opponents to formally appoint a transitional government and were not planning to challenge Añez in her transitional role.