LA PAZ: A majority of voters in Bolivia cast invalid ballots in a weekend election to choose the country's top judges, in what the opposition hailed as a slap in the face to leftist President Evo Morales.
According to exit polls broadcast by private television network ATB, 57 to 60 percent of those who voted in Sunday's polls to elect 28 top judges -- a contest keenly promoted by the government -- cast blank or invalid ballots.
The blank ballots will not affect the nomination of the judges to the top spots on the country's top four tribunals including the constitutional and supreme courts, but the government was banking on a strong valid vote.
About 5.2 million Bolivians went to the polls for what the government called a "historic" election that would produce a "model" democratic judicial system. Voting is compulsory in the South American country.
The 122 candidates on the ballot officially had no party affiliations.
But the election became increasingly political in recent weeks, with the center-left and right-wing opposition calling for invalid votes as a way to show discontent with the Morales government.
The opposition claimed that the election was a sham and would compromise the independence of the judiciary as the candidates were pre-selected by parliament, which is controlled by Morales' party.
Opposition leader Samuel Doria Medina said the majority of invalid votes had stripped the contest of its legitimacy, hailing it as a victory and saying: "No one owns Bolivia."
"This country is no longer afraid of its government," he said.
Juan del Granado, a former Morales ally turned influential center-left opponent, said the majority had expressed its opposition to "authoritarianism, inefficiency and corruption."
In a brief statement, Morales refused to comment on the results, but hailed what he called the "success of the Bolivian people's participation" in the election.
Morales has come under fire in recent weeks over a controversial plan to build a highway through a rainforest reserve. Police forcibly broke up a protest over the project last month, sparking public anger.
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