President Evo Morales of Bolivia won a resounding victory in a recall vote yesterday after calling a referendum to break a political stalemate and revive his leftist campaign.

More than 63 percent of voters in this bitterly divided Andean nation ratified the mandate of Mr Morales, the country's first indigenous president and his vice president, Alvaro Garcia. He had proposed the referendum in an attempt to topple opposing governors who want autonomy in their resource rich provinces and have frustrated his attempts to improve the lot of the country's impoverished indigenous majority..

"What happened today is important not only for Bolivians but for all Latin Americans," Mr Morales, a former coca leaf farmer, told several thousand cheering supporters last night from the balcony of the presidential palace. "I dedicate this victory to all the revolutionaries in the world."

Calling on the country's governors to work with him for Bolivian unity, he stressed the importance of advancing the battle against poverty. His supporters and those of his opponents took to the streets waving banners, chanting, dancing and setting off fireworks afte a peaceful vote that contrasted with violent protests earlier in the week.

Mr Morales' leftist agenda has met with bitter opposition in the unabashedly capitalistic eastern half of the country, where protesters who accuse him of being a lackey of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez last week blockaded airports to keep him from touching down for campaign visits.

"I'm glad he has won, because Morales is one of us, he's working class like me," said Hector Gutierrez, 32, a computer technician. "I expect things to improve now because someone from the same background as me cannot let me down," he said.

The power struggle between Mr Morales and the opposition governors has exposed deep divisions between the wealthy east of the country and the impoverished, indigenous west. The governors are enraged that the president has cut their share of windfall natural gas revenues and accuse him of governing only for his supporters.

Since coming to power in 2005, Mr Morales has nationalised the oil and gas industry and worked to reform the consitution.

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