'Rocks, sticks and tear gas,' amid violent protests in Santa Cruz over disputed Bolivia election

in the lowland city of Santa Cruz, clashes erupted between supporters of Bolivian President Morales and presidential candidate Carlos Mesa on Wednesday. Bolivian leader Morales has claimed victory in a presidential election and accused the opposition of trying to orchestrate a coup, after mass opposition-led protests since the Sunday vote that claimed the counting was rigged. The latest official count showed Morales with 46.49% of the vote.

That puts him 9.5 points ahead of main rival Carlos Mesa, but still short of the 10-point lead needed to win outright and avoid a riskier second round run-off. Mesa said that the Morales-led government was behind the political crisis and had orchestrated a fraudulent election.