LA PAZ, Bolivia — President Evo Morales and legislative candidates from his political movement seemed headed to easy victories in nationwide elections on Sunday, opening the way for Mr. Morales to deepen his pro-indigenous policies in one of Latin America’s poorest countries.

Preliminary results broadcast on three national television stations said Mr. Morales, 50, received about 63 percent of the vote, versus the estimated 23 percent secured by his leading rival, the former army captain Manfred Reyes Villa, and comfortably surpassing the 50 percent needed to avoid a runoff election.

Official results were not expected Sunday, but fireworks exploded and car horns blared here in the capital and in El Alto, La Paz’s twin city of slums on the high plains, both Morales bastions. Voting in the country of 9.8 million was calm.

“This revolution, this process of change, is unstoppable,” said Eugenio Rojas, a leader of the Red Ponchos, a radical group supporting Mr. Morales and formed by Aymara Indians on the high plains.

“This is the return of the Pachakuti for us, the indigenous majority of this country,” Mr. Rojas added, referring to a 15th-century Incan leader and empire builder with whom radical supporters sometimes compare Mr. Morales, an Aymara who is Bolivia’s first indigenous president.

Under a new Constitution, Mr. Morales, who has already served four years, is limited to one additional five-year term. But his strong election showing intensified debate here over whether he will seek to remove term limits, as President Hugo Chávez recently did in Venezuela.

Among Bolivia’s indigenous majority, Mr. Morales’s expanding power is supported broadly but not unanimously.

“No one knows what will happen if a government attains absolute power,” said René Joaquino, an indigenous candidate who opposed Mr. Morales and achieved a single-digit showing in the election.

The preliminary results for the president and congressional candidates from his Movement Toward Socialism party also suggested greater power within his grasp. If the party secures a two-thirds majority in Congress, it could push forward changes like self-rule for indigenous areas.

The early results pointed to another potential area of greater strength for Mr. Morales, in the once-rebellious lowlands, where he seemed to do relatively well in two gas-rich areas, Tarija and Santa Cruz, making it easier for him to redirect petroleum revenue. Using these proceeds to increase social spending has been an important aim of Mr. Morales’s government.

“Evo is our true leader,” said Germana Laime de Mamani, a street vendor in El Alto who said she looked forward to receiving a monthly pension of 200 bolivianos, about $28, when she turned 60 next year.

Andrés Schipani contributed reporting.

 

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