Latest news with #Nulo
New Indian Express
2 days ago
- Politics
- New Indian Express
Barred from Bolivia's elections, former President Morales campaigns hard for invalid votes
EL ALTO: Barred from appearing on Sunday's ballot, former leftist president Evo Morales has launched a scrappy campaign for a presidential contender with no name, no face and no formal platform. The contender's known as 'Nulo" — Spanish for the null-and-void vote. Nulo has a reliable base in Bolivia, where voting is compulsory. For many years, voters disillusioned with Morales' increasingly high-handed attempts to prolong his presidency over three consecutive terms defaced their ballots or left them blank. Supporters of Morales to declare their votes null But with the coca-farming union leader disqualified from the race and seeking to distance himself from the unpopular President Luis Arce and other leftists associated with Bolivia's worst economic crisis in four decades, Morales has emerged as Nulo's greatest champion. 'Brothers, we are on the right track. Absenteeism, blank ballots, undecided voters, all of it,' Morales told Radio Kawsachun Coca, his media outlet in the Bolivian jungle of Chapare, where he has been holed up for months among fiercely loyal coca-growing labor unions. If Morales leaves his tropical stronghold, he risks arrest on charges related to statutory rape. He denies the allegations. 'Nulo is where we belong,' he said, urging voters to scratch, scribble and sketch on their ballots. 'We've already won here.' But under Bolivian law, Nulo cannot win the elections— nor trigger a redo. Because authorities must remove spoiled and blank ballots from the final count, a surge by Nulo would give all the candidates a boost without affecting the distribution of votes.
2 days ago
- Politics
Barred from Bolivia's elections, ex-leader Morales campaigns hard for invalid votes
EL ALTO, Bolivia -- Barred from appearing on Sunday's ballot, former leftist president Evo Morales has launched a scrappy campaign for a presidential contender with no name, no face and no formal platform. The contender's known as 'Nulo" — Spanish for the null-and-void vote. Nulo has a reliable base in Bolivia, where voting is compulsory. For many years, voters disillusioned with Morales' increasingly high-handed attempts to prolong his presidency over three consecutive terms defaced their ballots or left them blank. But with the coca-farming union leader disqualified from the race and seeking to distance himself from the unpopular President Luis Arce and other leftists associated with Bolivia's worst economic crisis in four decades, Morales has emerged as Nulo's greatest champion. 'Brothers, we are on the right track. Absenteeism, blank ballots, undecided voters, all of it,' Morales told Radio Kawsachun Coca, his media outlet in the Bolivian jungle of Chapare, where he has been holed up for months among fiercely loyal coca-growing labor unions. If Morales leaves his tropical stronghold, he risks arrest on charges related to statutory rape. He denies the allegations. 'Nulo is where we belong,' he said, urging voters to scratch, scribble and sketch on their ballots. 'We've already won here.' But under Bolivian law, Nulo cannot win the elections— nor trigger a redo. Because authorities must remove spoiled and blank ballots from the final count, a surge by Nulo would give all the candidates a boost without affecting the distribution of votes. Morales is betting that an unusually high proportion of votes for Nulo would embarrass the right-wing front-runners, former President Jorge 'Tuto' Quiroga and businessman Samuel Doria Medina, undermine the credibility of the consequential election and extend his own political relevance. 'Evo wants to be in the election and say, 'This is my vote ... I'm the winner without even having participated,'" said political analyst Carlos Saavedra. Morales' bid for Nulo comes after the iconic leftist leader, like other Latin American populists of his generation, exhausted a range of tactics to stay in power. To run for a third term in 2014, Morales changed the Constitution's two-consecutive-term limit and stacked the top courts with his supporters. To run for a fourth term in 2019, he found a way around a referendum blocking his bid. That last attempt six years ago led to Morales resigning under pressure from the military and fleeing into exile as violent protests erupted over his disputed reelection. This time, with his ally-turned-rival Arce in power, Morales had all the cards — rather, courts — stacked against him. The ex-president's power struggle with Arce splintered his once-dominant Movement Toward Socialism. Although running with a different faction, Senate President Andrónico Rodríguez represents the MAS party's best hope. But support for Rodríguez, a coca-farming union activist like Morales, has declined in recent weeks as an accelerating currency crisis stokes outrage at the long-dominant MAS party. Morales' followers can appear even more disgusted with the left than with the right-wing establishment that their leader built his career opposing. "Evo Morales taught Andrónico everything he knows, and Andrónico stabbed him in the back. How can we trust a candidate like that?" asked Wendy Chipana, a 28-year-old volunteer at a Nulo campaign office in El Alto, the sprawling city of rural migrants overlooking Bolivia's capital of La Paz. 'We only have one candidate, Evo Morales. That's why we're deciding not to cast a single valid vote.' As anger flared in June over Morales' disqualification, his supporters blocked highways and clashed with police in unrest that left eight dead. Morales warned that the country would 'convulse' should Sunday's election proceed. Yet in recent weeks he has changed his tune, urging his followers to register their frustration through the ballot box. Nulo campaigners are asking voters to get creative. Chipana distributes decals of Morales' face that voters can stick on their ballots. Retired professor Martha Cruz, 67, says she'll mark hers with a large X. Diego Aragon, 32, a coca farmer in Chapare, plans to paste a coca leaf on his paper in a nod to Morales' legalization of the medicinal plant, maligned during the U.S.-backed war on drugs as the base product in cocaine. Clothing vendor Daniela Cusi, 44, wants to take her time in the voting booth. 'I'm going to bring paint and draw his pretty little face all over,' she said. With just days to go before the election, Nulo is drawing even some of Morales' detractors who prefer to vote for nothing than back any of the uncharismatic candidates. 'I'm done with Evo, but I have no information about these other candidates,' said Diana Mamani, 30, selling shivering lambs at a market in the far reaches of El Alto. 'The right-wing spends all this money on propaganda but they haven't bothered to come out here.' The two right-wing candidates, Quiroga and Doria Medina, have run for president and lost three times before. Despite disenchantment over his autocratic tendencies, sexual abuse cases and profligate state spending, Morales, as Bolivia's first Indigenous president, retains a level of fervent support that no other candidate can claim. 'I look in the mirror and realize I am just like him,' said Cristina Sonco, 43, a worker at the scenic cable car linking La Paz to El Alto, one of the many infrastructure projects Morales built as president. Like Morales, Sonco is an Aymara, the Indigenous group forming the majority of Bolivia's population. Recalling how his presidency reduced inequality and increased her rights in a country historically dominated by a white and mestizo, or mixed-race, elite, she started to weep. 'He's like a father to me," she said. 'Not like these other candidates.' The light-skinned, Western-educated Quiroga and Doria Medina represent the same ruling class that Morales swept aside when he first rode to power in 2005, vowing to bury 20 years of pro-Washington, free-market policies that failed to lift Bolivians out of poverty. Twenty years later, Bolivia finds itself at the end of another historic cycle. Prices are rising and fuel is scarce. Families can no longer access their dollar savings. In some ways, analysts say, Sunday's elections could leave Morales right back where he started. 'I think that's why Morales is pushing for Nulo, not a left-wing vote,' said Aymara author Quya Reyna. 'It would suit him for the right-wing to come to power.' After all, Morales' past five years spent bickering with his former protégé wasn't a great look for the maverick leader, Reyna said, adding:
Winnipeg Free Press
2 days ago
- Politics
- Winnipeg Free Press
Barred from Bolivia's elections, ex-leader Morales campaigns hard for invalid votes
EL ALTO, Bolivia (AP) — Barred from appearing on Sunday's ballot, former leftist president Evo Morales has launched a scrappy campaign for a presidential contender with no name, no face and no formal platform. The contender's known as 'Nulo' — Spanish for the null-and-void vote. Nulo has a reliable base in Bolivia, where voting is compulsory. For many years, voters disillusioned with Morales' increasingly high-handed attempts to prolong his presidency over three consecutive terms defaced their ballots or left them blank. Supporters of Morales to declare their votes null But with the coca-farming union leader disqualified from the race and seeking to distance himself from the unpopular President Luis Arce and other leftists associated with Bolivia's worst economic crisis in four decades, Morales has emerged as Nulo's greatest champion. 'Brothers, we are on the right track. Absenteeism, blank ballots, undecided voters, all of it,' Morales told Radio Kawsachun Coca, his media outlet in the Bolivian jungle of Chapare, where he has been holed up for months among fiercely loyal coca-growing labor unions. If Morales leaves his tropical stronghold, he risks arrest on charges related to statutory rape. He denies the allegations. 'Nulo is where we belong,' he said, urging voters to scratch, scribble and sketch on their ballots. 'We've already won here.' But under Bolivian law, Nulo cannot win the elections— nor trigger a redo. Because authorities must remove spoiled and blank ballots from the final count, a surge by Nulo would give all the candidates a boost without affecting the distribution of votes. Morales bets on 'Nulo' to stay in the game Morales is betting that an unusually high proportion of votes for Nulo would embarrass the right-wing front-runners, former President Jorge 'Tuto' Quiroga and businessman Samuel Doria Medina, undermine the credibility of the consequential election and extend his own political relevance. 'Evo wants to be in the election and say, 'This is my vote … I'm the winner without even having participated,'' said political analyst Carlos Saavedra. Morales' bid for Nulo comes after the iconic leftist leader, like other Latin American populists of his generation, exhausted a range of tactics to stay in power. To run for a third term in 2014, Morales changed the Constitution's two-consecutive-term limit and stacked the top courts with his supporters. To run for a fourth term in 2019, he found a way around a referendum blocking his bid. That last attempt six years ago led to Morales resigning under pressure from the military and fleeing into exile as violent protests erupted over his disputed reelection. From ruling bloc to running alone This time, with his ally-turned-rival Arce in power, Morales had all the cards — rather, courts — stacked against him. The ex-president's power struggle with Arce splintered his once-dominant Movement Toward Socialism. Although running with a different faction, Senate President Andrónico Rodríguez represents the MAS party's best hope. But support for Rodríguez, a coca-farming union activist like Morales, has declined in recent weeks as an accelerating currency crisis stokes outrage at the long-dominant MAS party. Morales' followers can appear even more disgusted with the left than with the right-wing establishment that their leader built his career opposing. 'Evo Morales taught Andrónico everything he knows, and Andrónico stabbed him in the back. How can we trust a candidate like that?' asked Wendy Chipana, a 28-year-old volunteer at a Nulo campaign office in El Alto, the sprawling city of rural migrants overlooking Bolivia's capital of La Paz. 'We only have one candidate, Evo Morales. That's why we're deciding not to cast a single valid vote.' As anger flared in June over Morales' disqualification, his supporters blocked highways and clashed with police in unrest that left eight dead. Morales warned that the country would 'convulse' should Sunday's election proceed. Yet in recent weeks he has changed his tune, urging his followers to register their frustration through the ballot box. For 'Nulo' voters, the ballot becomes a canvas Nulo campaigners are asking voters to get creative. Chipana distributes decals of Morales' face that voters can stick on their ballots. Retired professor Martha Cruz, 67, says she'll mark hers with a large X. Diego Aragon, 32, a coca farmer in Chapare, plans to paste a coca leaf on his paper in a nod to Morales' legalization of the medicinal plant, maligned during the U.S.-backed war on drugs as the base product in cocaine. Clothing vendor Daniela Cusi, 44, wants to take her time in the voting booth. 'I'm going to bring paint and draw his pretty little face all over,' she said. Voter cynicism intensifies With just days to go before the election, Nulo is drawing even some of Morales' detractors who prefer to vote for nothing than back any of the uncharismatic candidates. 'I'm done with Evo, but I have no information about these other candidates,' said Diana Mamani, 30, selling shivering lambs at a market in the far reaches of El Alto. 'The right-wing spends all this money on propaganda but they haven't bothered to come out here.' The two right-wing candidates, Quiroga and Doria Medina, have run for president and lost three times before. Despite disenchantment over his autocratic tendencies, sexual abuse cases and profligate state spending, Morales, as Bolivia's first Indigenous president, retains a level of fervent support that no other candidate can claim. 'I look in the mirror and realize I am just like him,' said Cristina Sonco, 43, a worker at the scenic cable car linking La Paz to El Alto, one of the many infrastructure projects Morales built as president. Like Morales, Sonco is an Aymara, the Indigenous group forming the majority of Bolivia's population. Recalling how his presidency reduced inequality and increased her rights in a country historically dominated by a white and mestizo, or mixed-race, elite, she started to weep. 'He's like a father to me,' she said. 'Not like these other candidates.' The light-skinned, Western-educated Quiroga and Doria Medina represent the same ruling class that Morales swept aside when he first rode to power in 2005, vowing to bury 20 years of pro-Washington, free-market policies that failed to lift Bolivians out of poverty. Bolivia's crisis summons ghosts of the past Twenty years later, Bolivia finds itself at the end of another historic cycle. Prices are rising and fuel is scarce. Families can no longer access their dollar savings. In some ways, analysts say, Sunday's elections could leave Morales right back where he started. 'I think that's why Morales is pushing for Nulo, not a left-wing vote,' said Aymara author Quya Reyna. 'It would suit him for the right-wing to come to power.' After all, Morales' past five years spent bickering with his former protégé wasn't a great look for the maverick leader, Reyna said, adding: 'He's much more comfortable confronting neoliberal administrations. That would lend him social legitimacy, even if he's not in the government or Congress.'
Washington Post
2 days ago
- Politics
- Washington Post
Barred from Bolivia's elections, ex-leader Morales campaigns hard for invalid votes
EL ALTO, Bolivia — Barred from appearing on Sunday's ballot , former leftist president Evo Morales has launched a scrappy campaign for a presidential contender with no name, no face and no formal platform. The contender's known as 'Nulo' — Spanish for the null-and-void vote.
New York Post
01-05-2025
- Health
- New York Post
How pets improve their owners' mental health
Almost three in five Americans say that their pet literally saved their life, according to new research. A survey of 2,000 cat and dog owners revealed that 56% have been rescued by their four-legged friend in one way or another. When asked how, one respondent shared, 'I'm not sure I would be the person I am today (or even be here today) if it wasn't for him,' while another found themselves in bad shape at the hospital, sharing, 'knowing I had to get home to my babies saved me.' 5 A survey found that 56% of petowners have been rescued by their four-legged friend in one way or another. Getty Images In fact, another 56% are willing to repay the favor and would trade years off their own life so that their pet could live longer. More than one-third of pet owners polled (34%) purposely got a pet to improve their mental health and it's working. Almost all (95%) find that having a pet improves their mental health on a daily basis. Prior to getting their pet, only 32% of respondents would have graded their mental health between an A- and an A+. After getting their pet, that number jumps to 71%. 5 34% of the 2,000 pet owners polled purposely got a pet to improve their mental health. Getty Images Some shared that it's the companionship that gives them the boost, saying a pet 'makes me feel needed' or simply gives them support 'by always being there next to me.' Another pet owner said, 'I just have to look at him to have a better outlook on life and the day. I'm so grateful to have him in my life,' and 90% of respondents agreed that their pet has the power to turn a bad day into a good one just by being there. Conducted by Talker Research on behalf of global pet food brand Nulo the survey explored both the large and small ways our four-legged friends not only boost our mental health but become our most trusted confidants. 5 'I just have to look at him to have a better outlook on life and the day. I'm so grateful to have him in my life,' one pet owner said. Getty Images 'My dogs Lilo and Rambo are my biggest cheerleaders—they're always there for me, no matter what kind of day I'm having. The love and support we get from our pets is so special, and it's incredible to see just how much they impact our mental health,' said Nulo spokesperson, eleven-time Olympic medalist Simone Biles. 'Just like they take care of us, it's our job to take care of them too.' Each and every day, pets make their owners smile an average of 11 times and make them laugh nine times. But what exactly causes these moments of endearment? Respondents shared some of their favorite ways their pets bring them joy on a daily basis, such as, 'she likes to sleep on top of my stomach or curled up against me,' 'he is goofy, loves to play and loves to demand his favorite treats' or even 'when they want to dance with me.' 5 Pets make their owners smile an average of 11 times and make them laugh nine times. Getty Images Results also found that when respondents are away from their pet, it takes an average of just five hours before their mental health starts to decrease, though 41% say it wanes within the first two hours. The bond between pets and their people runs so deep that respondents are also almost twice as likely to trust their pet more over their partner (53% vs. 27%) and only 11% trust their best friend the most. Almost two in five (38%) even trust their pet's instincts more than their own, with one respondent underscoring how deep this trust goes; 'I would have died if I didn't go to the ER back in June, my dog alerted my husband something wasn't right.' 5 Respondents are also almost twice as likely to trust their pet more over their partner. Getty Images/iStockphoto Taking things a step further, 49% would sit on the toilet in front of their pet, but not their partner. Others would more comfortably fart (43%), cry (39%) or even take a shower (31%) in front of their pet over their partner. 'Whether it's early morning training or long travel days, my dog Jane is always my constant,' said nine-time Olympic gold medalist Caeleb Dressel and Nulo spokesperson. 'She lifts my spirits, keeps me grounded, and makes every day better just by being there. Our pets give us so much, and it's up to us to make sure they get the love and care they deserve in return.' Survey methodology: Talker Research surveyed 2,000 cat and dog owners; the survey was commissioned by Nulo and administered and conducted online by Talker Research between Jan. 16 and Jan. 21, 2025.
