Bolivia’s LA PAZ After a vote on Sunday that ended over 20 years of left-wing domination in the Andean country, Bolivia’s presidential election was heading to an extraordinary runoff, but it also indicated that voters were afraid of a significant shift to the right.
Early results indicated that Sen. Rodrigo Paz, a centrist dark horse, received more votes than the front-runners on the right, but not enough to win the election outright.
The right-wing former president Jorge “Tuto” Quiroga, who came in second, will compete against Paz, a former mayor who has worked to temper the opposition’s demand for strict austerity to save Bolivia from economic ruin. On October 19, Bolivia will hold the second round of its first presidential runoff since regaining democracy in 1982.
Paz proclaimed, “Always Bolivia, everything for Bolivia,” before applauding spectators. “This economic model must change.”
Paz received 32.8% of the votes cast, with more than 91% of the ballots counted on Sunday. 26.4% was earned by Quiroga. In order to avoid a runoff, candidates had to reach 50%, or 40% with a 10-point victory margin.
Quiroga, surrounded by relatives, spoke to the crowd and congratulated Paz on taking the lead.
“This is a first. “We want to live in a free country,” Bolivia declared to the world, he said. “It’s a historic night.”
A leftist establishment confronts its demise
The outcomes dealt a serious blow to the hegemonic Movement Toward Socialism, or MAS, party, which has controlled Bolivia virtually continuously since its founder, the charismatic former president Evo Morales, became part of the “pink tide” of leftist leaders who took office throughout Latin America during the early 2000s commodities boom.
Eduardo del Castillo, the official MAS candidate, received only 3.2% of the vote and came in sixth. The 36-year-old Senate President Andro Rodriguez, the other socialist contender regarded as the party’s best chance, received 8% of the vote.
Morales defended coca growers against U.S.-backed eradication campaigns, increased the rights of the nation’s Indigenous majority, and invested natural gas income in infrastructure and social initiatives throughout his nearly 14 years in office.
However, public opinion turned against the maverick leader due to his increasingly haughty attempts to extend his presidency and claims of having sex with minors.
As Morales’ protégé-turned-enemy, President Luis Arce, caused Bolivia’s once-stable economy to collapse, simmering dissatisfaction escalated into a tidal surge of rage against the MAS party.
Less than two years ago, the annual inflation rate was 2%; as of this month, it was over sixteen percent. Fuel shortages have left the nation in a state of paralysis. The economy has been severely hampered by a severe lack of US dollars, which are required to pay for necessities like wheat.
MAS leaders exchanged blame as the crisis worsened. Even as its unimpressive candidates failed to come together, a power struggle between Morales and Arce finally split the party and gave the opposition a genuine chance to win.
A centrist takes a surprise lead
A country that had been conditioned by weeks of opinion polls to anticipate that Quiroga and billionaire Samuel Doria Medina, the front-runners on the right, would take the top two seats was shocked by Paz’s victory.
Doria Medina lost her fourth attempt at the presidency on Sunday. In front of glum fans, he declared that he had “no regrets.”
“I wanted to serve Bolivia as president, and it hasn’t been possible,” he stated.
Bolivian hesitation toward a sharp turn to the right appears to be reflected in the elevation of the more moderate Paz.
Paz has attempted to disassociate himself from Quiroga and Doria Medina’s promises to sell Bolivia’s vast lithium reserves to international corporations and apply for billions of dollars in loans from the International Monetary Fund.
However, he has also made scathing comments on the MAS party and its economic policies that are dictated by the state.
“I want to congratulate the people because this is a sign of change,” Paz stated. “They want a different future.”
New face, old roots
Doria Medina and Quiroga failed to energize voters despite their lofty pledges for radical change.
Both of them are linked by Bolivians to the neoliberal governments supported by the United States, which Morales rejected when he swept to power in 2006 and famously announced the end of Bolivia’s 20-year free-market capitalism experiment.
Bolivia is now facing a return to belt-tightening following 20 years of populist, state-directed economic policies under Morales. Bolivia appears to be on the verge of a reconciliation with the United States following years of alignment with global heavyweights such as China and Russia.
The former mayor of Tarija, a town in the south, has been characterized by Paz supporters as a newcomer with innovative ideas. However, he also has close ties to Bolivia’s former ruling class.
The 57-year-old legislator is the son of former President Jaime Paz Zamora, who co-founded the Revolutionary Left Movement and started his political career as a fervent communist. In the 1970s, under Hugo Banzer’s brutal military dictatorship, he and his associates were singled out and subjected to persecution. Paz was born under Banzer’s regime while living in exile in Spain.
Unexpectedly, however, Paz Zamora eventually made an agreement with Banzer’s right-wing party and was able to hold the office of president from 1989 until 1993. His minister of planning was Doria Medina.
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