Bolivia's President Morales announces resignation

Announcement made after the armed forces commander called on Evo Morales to resign over disputed re-election Bolivian President Evo Morales said on Sunday he would resign after the military suggested he step down and allies resigned amid a fierce backlash to a disputed election last month. "I resign my post as president," Morales said in a televised address, capping a day of fast-moving events in which several ministers and senior officials quit as support for Latin America's longest-serving president crumbled."I want to tell you, brothers and sisters, that the fight does not end here. The poor, the social movements, will continue in this fight for equality and peace," he said.The commander of Bolivia's armed forces earlier called on the embattled Morales to resign."After analysing the internal conflict situation, we ask the president of the state to renounce his presidential mandate, allowing for peace to be restored and the maintenance of stability for the good of Bolivia," armed forces commander Williams Kaliman told reporters.Speaking on national television, General Kaliman also appealed to Bolivians to desist from violence. He stepped in after Morales agreed earlier in the day to hold a new election.Earlier the military said it ordered air-and-land operations to "neutralise" armed groups that act outside the law, said a statement released on Sunday.Morales said he will call new elections after the Organization of American States (OAS) released a report saying a disputed vote last month that sparked deadly protests should be annulled because of irregularities.In a news conference, the president also said he would replace the members of the electoral board that came under fire after being mired in widespread allegations of electoral fraud in the October 20 vote."In the following hours, in agreement with all political forces, [we] will establish [the steps] for this [to take place]," he said.When questioned about whether he would be a candidate in the new election, Morales told a local radio station "the candidacies must be secondary, what comes first is to pacify Bolivia", adding he has a constitutional duty to finish his term.Rival Carlos Mesa said Morales and Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera should not preside over the electoral process or be candidates."If you have an iota of patriotism, you should step aside," Mesa told Morales in a press conference.Morales, 60, a native Aymara from Bolivia's highlands, became the country' first indigenous president in 2006 and easily won two more elections amid more than a decade of a commodities-fed economic boom in South America's poorest country. He paved roads, sent Bolivia's first satellite into space, and curbed inflation.But he has faced growing dissatisfaction because he ran for a fourth term after refusing to abide bythe results of a referendum that upheld term limits for the president. Bolivia's constitutional court then ruled term limits violated his rights.