La Paz - The official results were still not in late Monday, but Bolivian President Evo Morales has already claimed victory in a referendum on whether he should retain power.

According to exit polls cited by television network ATB and other Bolivian media, Morales survived the recall referendum Sunday, by obtaining 56.7 per cent of the votes.

His mandate would have been revoked had he failed to get at least 46.3 per cent of the votes.

On Monday, the confident government asked the opposition to remain calm, understand the implications of the results and accept the offer for dialogue that Morales made late Sunday.

The Bolivian opposition has turned the pro-autonomy movement in four of the country's nine regions into a tool to attack the left- wing populist government, which has sought a redistribution of the country's resources to improve the lot of the impoverished indigenous majority.

ATB projected that the governors of Santa Cruz, Beni, Tarija, Pando and Potosi had withstood the recall vote.

However, the governors of La Paz and Cochabamba - both of whom oppose Morales - remained at risk, with exit polls estimating they would get close to 50 per cent of the votes, the limit set by Bolivian electoral authorities for their revocation.

Morales was elected in late 2005 to become Bolivia's first Indio president. His five-year mandate was set to expire in 2011, unless he lost the recall referendum. (dpa)