This Bolivian candidate needs an Apple watch — the fruit kind

http://www.washingtonpost.com/this-bolivian-candidate-needs-an-apple-watch--the-fruit-kind/2014/10/16/1fd43749-d561-4bf3-ac43-5071cff78b99_story.html?wprss=rss_world

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Running for president against Bolivia's popular incumbent, Evo Morales, is probably a frustrating experience. The kind of thing that can lead a candidate to say some regrettable things. Or make ill-conceived promises.

And if third-place finisher Jorge Quiroga actually ends up having to eat his watch and his tie, well, he's going to have some other problems, too.

Quiroga said this week that "I'll eat my watch" if Morales wins 60 percent of the vote in last Sunday's presidential contest. On another occasion, the challenger apparently raised the ante by saying he would consume his tie.

Quiroga, mind you, is not some accessory-munching madman. He's a former president who ran against Morales promising to battle corruption and cronyism.

Morales was easily elected to a third term, and with 91 percent of the vote counted so far, he's at 60 percent. The second-place finisher, Samuel Medina, has 25 percent, with Quiroga winning 9 percent.

Bolivians have had fun with this on social media, of course, goofing Quiroga with pictures of him preparing to eat wall clocks and or large pocket watches.

Quiroga told reporters earlier this week that he would keep his word and return to Santa Cruz, Bolivia's most populous city, for a special watch-eating ceremony. "We'll wait for the final results and then we'll see," he said.

He did not indicate what type of timepiece he preferred to dine on — Swiss, digital, sporty.

But at the same news conference, he also appeared to be looking for a way out of his predicament, charging the country's electoral commission with incompetence and more, claiming that ballots were being "stolen" and delivered for the president.

"Never in the recent history of Bolivian democracy has there been such a demonstration of ineptitude, incompetence and inefficiency in an electoral body, which leads one to think they are manipulating and cooking the results," Quiroga said.

He'd better also hope he can find someone who knows how to cook metal and tenderize a wristband.