Ex-President Morales Supports Campaign for Undesirable Voices

• Evo Morales launched a campaign for undesirable voices in the elections.
• Null is a movement of voters who refuse to support other candidates.
• Morales' support remains strong, despite his disqualification.

Former President of Bolivia — Ex-President of the leftist party Evo Morales was barred from participating in the elections on Sunday, but he launched a campaign to support the candidate without a name and a label, known as "Null" — in Spanish "undesirable voice".

Null has a solid base in Bolivia, where voting is mandatory. For many years in elections, disappointed Morales supporters continued their presidency, or spoiled their ballots, or left them blank.

Since the leader of the coca-farmers union was disqualified from the race, Morales became the biggest supporter of Null, aiming to distance himself from Sunday's president Luis Arce and other leftists, who are associated with the biggest economic crisis in Bolivia in the last four decades.

"Brothers, we are on the right path. The absence of voices, spoiled ballots, unregistered voters — all of this," — said Morales in his media channel. If Morales retains his tropical base, he risks arrest on charges of incitement to racial hatred, which he denies.

"Null is where we should be," — he added, calling on voters to spoil their ballots. However, according to Bolivian legislation, Null cannot win elections or challenge their repetition. Since government bodies usually exclude undesirable and spoiled ballots from the total count, Null can increase the chances of all candidates without changing the distribution of votes.

Morales hopes that a high level of votes for Null will not disgrace the rights of candidates, such as former president Jorge "Tuto" Quiroga and businessman Samuel Doria Medina, undermining trust in the elections and continue his political relevance.

Despite the disappointment of his authoritarian tendencies and accusations of sexual violence, Morales, like the first indigenous president of Bolivia, maintains a level of support that no other candidate has.

Campaigners for Null are calling to be creative. Some voters plan to decorate their ballots with stickers of Morales or paint on them, demonstrating their support for him.

Despite the disappointment, Null even attracts some of Morales' critics, who believe it is better not to vote than to support any undesirable candidates.

Tags: Politics