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LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) — President Evo Morales' governing party suffered its most serious setback of nearly a decade in power in local and regional elections Sunday, according to unofficial results.
Opposition candidates won the governor's office in the La Paz region and the mayor's seat in El Alto, the capital's poorer sister city, the quick count results compiled for three broadcast networks showed. La Paz's s opposition mayor, Luis Revilla, was re-elected.
In October, Morales won re-election to a third term with 61 percent of the vote. But his governing Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) is less popular and has been beset by corruption scandals.
Of Bolivia's three most important governorships, a governing party candidate only won one — Cochabamba — on Sunday.
MAS held seven of Bolivia's nine governorships going into Sunday's vote. It secured four, while two were headed for runoffs, the unofficial results showed.
The La Paz region governor-elect, Felix Patzi, is a prominent academic and a native Aymara like Morales. He served as education minister in Morales' first government.
Morales rose to power as a leader of one of Bolivia's main coca-grower's federations.
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