Bolivia elections: Senator Rodrigo Paz and former president Jorge Quiroga will play the presidency in the second round, ending 20 years of government of the MAS

The participation was 78.55% on a register of 7.5 million citizens enabled, according to the TSE.

Paz, which is presented as a center renewal figure of Centro, and Quiroga, more aligned with the conservative right, will face October 19 in the second round.

This marks a precedent since, since in 2009 the ballot system in Bolivia was established, all elections had been decided in the first vote.

The Bolivian Constitution establishes that a candidate can win the presidency in the first round if he obtains more than 50% of the valid votes, or at least 40% with a difference of ten percentage points over the second.

The progress to the peaceball and Quiroga also anticipates a historical change in Bolivian politics, since citizens will choose a president who is not left after almost two decades governed by the MAS.

The result confirms the fracture and decline of the political force founded by Evo Morales, which came divided into the contest and with an electoral support well below the one marked by Bolivian politics during the last 20 years.

The general elections of this August 17 were summoned to elect president, vice president, 36 senators, 130 deputies and nine representatives before international parliamentary organizations.

The president of the TSE, Óscar Hassenteufel, evaluated the electoral day as quiet, without serious incidents and with 100% of the enabled suffrage tables.

The pass to the second round of Peace and Quiroga shows the fragmentation within the opposition, which months ago tried to unify forces around a single candidate, but ended up dividing.

Both candidates compete for an electorate who seeks to overcome the economic crisis and close the political cycle of the MAS, but with different styles: Paz embodies a more renovating and moderate profile, while Quiroga offers a more political, ideological and conservative discourse.

Rodrigo Paz, 54 -year -old senator and son of former president Jaime Paz Zamora, has built his political career in Congress and as mayor of Tarija.

In this campaign it was presented as a replacement alternative to traditional figures.

His candidacy surprised by the rise in the surveys during the last weeks – although he was not a favorite – and was consolidated with a message of renewal and with the impulse of his formula partner, the expolition Edman Lara, known for his anti -corruption speech.

Jorge “Tuto” Quiroga, 65, was president between 2001 and 2002 after the resignation of Hugo Banzer.

It is presented as an experienced politician, of hard speech against the MAS, which, according to analysts, gives support between more radical opposition sectors but limits it when attracting moderate or disenchanted voters.

The choice had as a backdrop the worst economic crisis of the last 40 years.

Bolivia faces interannual inflation close to 25%, shortage of fuels, loss of value of the Bolivian in the parallel market and difficulties in accessing dollars.

Analysts attribute to social discomfort linked to the crisis the fragmentation of the vote, which explains to a good extent that no candidate exceeds 33% in the first round.

Another of the determining factors was the fracture of the movement to socialism, which came divided into these elections.

President Luis Arce retired from the race in May and gave his support to his former government minister, Eduardo del Castillo, which appeared with the acronym of the MAS –PSP with results well below expected.

Andronón Rodríguez, president of the Senate and emerging figure of the left space, tried to present himself as an alternative with his own alliance, but failed to capitalize on the vote of the MAS.

Former President Evo Morales, disabled by justice to present himself to the elections, denounced the “proscription” of his electoral participation and promoted the null vote, which would have further subtracted more ballots on the left.

The null votes added 1,165,000, 18.9%, well above the average of the past elections that was around 3.7%.

However, even taking into account this data and the call of Morales, the preliminary results suggest that the left was far from disputing the presidency.

Thus, the second round will face two opposition projects that coincide in their rejection of the MAS, but differ in their approaches.

Whoever wins on October 19, in any case, will face the challenge of inaugurating a new political cycle in a context marked by one of the worst economic crises of the last decades in the South American country.

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