Bolivian President Evo Morales appears to have cruised to a third term according to exit polls of people voting on the weekend election.  Votes were still being counted across the country, but Bolivia’s first indigenous leader seemed on track to get 60 percent of the vote.  At least 50 percent is required to avoid a runoff.

Morales and his Movement For Socialism (MAS) Party have overseen strong economic growth since taking office in 2006. They’ve used Bolivia’s nationalized commodities to reduce poverty levels instead of enrich a handful of private owners, and expanded public works.  Bolivia’s economic growth of 5 percent annually is greater than the regional average.

“I voted for Morales,” said Flavia Nunez, a 50-year-old office clerk, in central La Paz.  “These other right-wing candidates would take us back in time.  I don’t want that.”

The court allowed Evo to run for a third term that will keep him in office until January 2020, and expand the ruling party’s power in the legislature.  That makes for an unprecedented stretch of calm and progress in a country long dogged by coups and political instability.  But it didn’t sit well with every voter.

“This government has had two terms and I don’t like it when a small clique lingers on in power,” said 53-year old economist Miguel Angel Perez, 53, who voted for one of the conservative opposition candidates.