Election authorities on Thursday declared Evo Morales winner of Bolivia's presidential election, whose disputed count process triggered riots and a general strike. 

The website of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) showed Morales with 47.06 percent of the votes, with the opposition candidate Carlos Mesa on 36.5 percent, with 99.8 percent of the votes counted.

"We won in the first round," Morales of the Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) party confidently told a news conference. He called this "good news." But he said that if he did not obtain the 10-point margin he would respect that result. "If we have to go to a second round, we will go," he said.

The new mandate means Morales, already Latin America's longest serving president, will remain in power until 2025. Mesa said Wednesday he would not recognize results tallied by the tribunal, which he accused of manipulating the count to help Morales win.

Mesa is insisting there be a runoff between him and the president, and called on supporters to keep protesting in the streets.

Observers from the Organization of American States (OAS) have expressed concern over the vote count, which first showed Morales and Mesa in a tight race and headed for a runoff, and then shifted dramatically Monday to give the president a wider lead.

The European Union said Thursday it shared the OAS assessment "that the best option would be to hold a second round to restore trust and ensure the full respect of the democratic choice of the Bolivian people."

"We call on all parties to refrain from violence and from making declarations that are divisive," it said. 

Election offices torched

Brazil, Argentina and the U.S. also expressed concern over how the votes were tallied.

Violent protests have raged all week, and fresh clashes broke out Thursday between supporters of both sides in Santa Cruz, the economic capital and opposition stronghold.

Offices in the city housing Bolivia's electoral authority were set on fire overnight, when security forces clashed with demonstrators in La Paz and elsewhere.

At least two people close to the ruling party MAS were injured in separate clashes.

On Monday, after the release of the election results, mobs torched electoral offices in Sucre and Potosi, while rival supporters clashed in La Paz, and a general strike went into force Wednesday.

(Cover: Evo Morales is greeted by supporters as he arrives to vote during the presidential election at a polling station in a school in Villa 14 de Septiembre, in the Chapare region, Bolivia, October 20, 2019. /VCG Photo)

(With input from AFP, Xinhua)