DRUG-WAR FOE FINISHES STRONG IN VOTING

LA PAZ, Bolivia - A Bolivian coca farmer who wants to stop U.S.-backed
eradication efforts has reached the final stage of Bolivian presidential
elections, electoral officials said.

Evo Morales, an Aymara Indian, looks unlikely to beat centrist millionaire
Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada when Bolivia's Congress meets Aug. 3 to choose
the winner. But his second-place showing - made official by results
released Tuesday - shows growing dissatisfaction among Indians who have
long been dominated politically by people of European descent.

Morales is the leader of Bolivia's coca farmers and fiercely opposes
efforts to eradicate their crop, part of which is used to make cocaine.
Most of the crop is used for traditional purposes, he says, arguing that
coca symbolizes Bolivian pride and history.

After 10 days of vote-counting slowed down by snowstorms in remote areas,
the National Election Council announced Tuesday that Sanchez de Lozada
officially won with 22.46 percent of the vote. Morales was second with
20.94 percent.

Manfred Reyes Villa, a populist retired army captain, placed third with
20.91 percent, just 714 votes behind Morales.

Bolivia's Congress will meet Aug. 3 to pick a new president from the two
top vote-getters, since neither Sanchez de Lozada nor Morales received more
than 50 percent of the vote for an outright victory.

Sanchez de Lozada, a former president who owns Bolivia's largest mining
company, is widely considered to have the best chance of winning the vote
in Congress. His centrist Nationalist Revolutionary Movement has 50 seats
in the 157-member legislature, compared with 30 controlled by Morales' New
Republican Force party.

Sanchez de Lozada, who ruled from 1993 to 1997, appeared late Tuesday close
to gaining enough support from other parties, including the Leftist
Revolutionary Movement, MIR, of former President Jaime Paz Zamora, who
placed a distant fourth in the presidential race.

Officials close to Paz Zamora said the party, which controls 30 seats in
Congress, may announce its support for Sanchez de Lozada as early as today.

The National Democratic Action party, ADN, of outgoing President Jorge
Quiroga, was also openly leaning to support Sanchez de Lozada. It has five
seats in Congress.

"Our party is going to act in a manner that ensures the nation the
responsible government it needs," ADN leader Jorge Landivar said.

Reyes Villa backtracked from his previous plans to back Morales in Congress.

Support from his own party plus backing from MIR and ADN would give Sanchez
de Lozada far more than the 79 votes required to be elected by the
157-member legislature.

During his first government, Sanchez de Lozada implemented a far-reaching
program privatizing state-owned companies. Morales has vowed to reverse
that program if elected.

Sanchez de Lozada is sometimes teased for the English accent he picked up
while spending much of his youth in the United States where his father was
sent into exile. President Quiroga was constitutionally banned from running
again to lead this nation of 8.3 million people. He took over last year
when President Hugo Banzer resigned after being diagnosed with cancer.
Banzer died earlier this year.

Bolivia is South America's poorest nation. At least six of every 10 people
there live in poverty; in rural areas the number is nine of 10.