Bolivian President Evo Morales easily won a recall vote yesterday and vowed to push on with socialist reforms that his rightist opponents in South America's poorest country are trying to block.
The election pitted Morales against governors who have pushed for autonomy for their resource-rich provinces and are furious that he has cut their share of windfall natural gas revenues.
Mr Morales, a former coca leaf farmer who is Bolivia's first Indian leader, hopes his victory will allow him to forge ahead with changes like nationalisations, land redistribution and a constitution that aims to give more power to the poor.
But his main rivals also won recall votes, meaning the conflict will continue and could get worse as both sides feel they have won a new mandate to stand firm.
"What the Bolivian people have expressed with their votes today is the consolidation of change," a beaming Morales told thousands of cheering supporters who gathered outside his presidential palace in La Paz.
"We're here to move forward with the recovery of our natural resources, the consolidation of nationalisation, and the state takeover of companies."
Unofficial exit polls said Morales secured more than 60 per cent of the vote -- far higher than the 53.7 per cent he won when he was elected president in December 2005.
Supporters of Mr Morales and of the main opposition governors alike took to the streets waving banners, chanting, dancing and setting off fire crackers after a peaceful vote that contrasted with violent protests earlier in the week.
The bitter power struggle between Morales and opposition governors has exposed deep divisions between the wealthier east of the country and the more indigenous west, and has forced Mr Morales to put many reforms on hold.
Mr Morales approved the recall vote in an apparent bid to undermine their autonomy drives.
But with Bolivia roiled by protests, and a bloc of four anti-Morales governors also surviving the recall vote, the standoff will continue unless a compromise can be negotiated.
The opposition governors are angry that Mr Morales has cut their share of windfall natural gas revenues and accuse him of governing only for his supporters. They also view him as a lackey of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, the vocal leader of a group of Latin America's radical left-wing presidents.
At campaign rallies leading up to the vote, Mr Morales distributed money from Mr Chavez for schools, roads and an office for a mining union.
Bolivians toppled their president in 2003 with a wave of street protests, demanding the energy industry be taken over by the state and calling for a new constitution.
Mr Morales nationalized the oil and gas industry and has worked to reform the constitution. He also champions cultivation of coca, the raw ingredient of cocaine, though for traditional uses.
Bolivia is the world's third biggest producer of coca, which has many legal uses in Bolivia. It is used in teas and religious ceremonies and is chewed to combat altitude sickness and suppress hunger.
Reuters