Bolivians on Sunday,Dec.18, 2005 began casting votes in a presidential race that could pick leftist Evo Morales as the new leader of the Andean nation.(Photo: Xinhua/AFP)

    LA PAZ, Dec. 18 (Xinhuanet) -- Evo Morales, the presidential candidate for the left wing Socialist Movement, has won the closely observed department of Carmago, in Sucre province, southwestern Bolivia, local media said on Sunday.

    Morales won six of the eleven votes from Carmago's electoral college, and his main rival Jorge Quiroga, of the right-wing Social and Economic Power Party, did not win a single vote.

    Michiaki Nagatani, of the Revolutionary Nationalist Movement, was in second place with four votes, and the center right National Unity party of Samuel Doria, received one vote.

    Morales is the favorite to win the elections, receiving 34.2 percent support in the country's most recent opinion polls. However, he is not expected to win the 50 percent plus one vote needed to be declared president in the first round.

    Sunday's general election will choose deputies for all of the 130 seats in the lower house and 27 seats in the upper house. Voters will also choose a vice president and nine governors. Enditem