Diciembre 28, 2004
Lema Quits City Council
In a unexpected turn of events, MAS candidate for the Cochabamba mayorship, Gonzalo Lema resigned his position and is formally leaving MAS.
After pledging to respect the top vote getter, he was criticized by MAS leader Evo Morales. Lema, as the 2nd place vote getter, legally could have sought the mayor chair. Then, he clarified that respecting and supporting Chaly Terceros (the top vote getter) is different than providing him with the sufficient votes to be mayor. As a result, Terceros made an alliance with UCS candidate Edwin Mallon. It is unclear what was exchanged in order for this alliance to happen.
Lema was formally censured by MAS in a meeting last Saturday. All of this left the famous national novelist very bitter.
"No puedo creer que sea algo utópico el contar con un Concejo libre de camarillas y en alianzas basadas en un mero interés político."
Whether or not politics will be in Lema's future is still unknown. It's hard to say whether Lema received less votes because of his association with MAS or more votes because of that party affiliation. I am guessing that he received all the votes associated with MAS no matter who the candidate was, although I have heard many people from Cochabamba say that they like Lema, but would never vote for MAS.
Posted by eduardo at Diciembre 28, 2004 11:37 AM