Bolivia holds its first presidential election without Evo Morales in more than 20 years | World

The main candidates are Carlos Mesa, who was second in the last elections, and Luis Arce, an ally of Evo Morales.

These are the first elections in the country without Evo’s participation since 1997. He lost the electoral race in 2002, but returned to compete in 2005, when he won for the first time. Elected two more times, he remained in power until November 2019 (see below).

The election can be decided in the first round if one of the candidates has at least 40% of valid votes and more than ten percentage points more than the runner-up.

If no one achieves this result, there will be a second round on November 29.

See below who are the three competitors leading the investigation:

• Luis Arce He is the candidate of the MAS, the party of Evo Morales. Arce was Evo’s economy minister; in this position, he was responsible for the nationalization of companies. During the campaign, he sought to distance himself from the more controversial aspects of the Evo years; He said, for example, that he will not interfere in the investigations against former MAS ministers.
• Carlos Mesa he was president of Bolivia between 2003 and 2005. He ran against Evo in the 2019 elections and came in second. He is considered a centrist.
• Luis Fernando Camacho is a far-right leader who led protests against Evo. It is from Santa Cruz, the most populated state.

There are other candidates, but they score poorly in the polls.

Arce has 33.6% of the voters’ preference, followed by Mesa, with 26.8%, according to a survey by the organization Tu Voto Cuenta, carried out between October 2 and 5. Camacho, in third place, has 13.9% of the voting intentions.

Two right-wing candidates dropped out: interim president Jeanine Añez and Jorge Quiroga, who was also the country’s leader.

The two left the elections to avoid a victory in the first round for Arce, Evo’s candidate. However, none declared their support for Mesa, the runner-up.

Some issues are fundamental to the current struggle for power in Bolivia:

• Evo Morales: The former president is in exile in Argentina. He is investigated by prosecutors for alleged crimes of a different nature, he denies all of them. There are accusations of corruption, electoral fraud and sexual abuse. Mesa said that in his government, Evo would not go unpunished for his crimes (which have not yet been tried). Arce, an ally of the former president, indicated that he will facilitate the return of his ally.

• Coca policy: The coca leaf is a traditional culture in Bolivia. In the Evo years, farmers who planted coca leaves were supported by the government, which ended the operations of US anti-drug agencies in the country. Both candidates say it is necessary to fight drugs. Arce says that traditional agricultural regions must be protected by law. Mesa says it is necessary to control more legal production.

• Relations with USA: During Evo’s administration, the relationship between Bolivia and the United States cooled – there has been no US ambassador to Bolivia since 2008. Arce promised to “work with everyone,” and Mesa said there is no reason not to resume a full relationship with the ambassadors. , with the United States.
• Lithium: The mineral is used and batteries for electric vehicles. Bolivia has large reserves of the material and they have been little explored. The two candidates indicated that they intend to change that. Mesa has already stated that he intends to turn the country into a global producer. Arce said he wants to industrialize lithium and create 130,000 direct and indirect jobs in this chain.

Understand the 2019 Canceled Elections

The vote to elect the next president is the second in a year. On October 20, 2019, Evo ran for the fourth time and came first (Mesa, who is now racing again, came second). As he had more than 40% of the votes, he was considered a winner.

The initial result of the count indicated a second round, but there were interruptions in the count. After days of uncertainty, the process was resumed and Evo was the winner.

Then the protests against the results began.

On November 10, 2019, the Organization of American States (OAS) released a report stating that the elections had been rigged.

Evo canceled the results and called for new elections immediately. However, the action was not enough: under pressure from the military, he resigned and then fled the country. Initially he went to Mexico and then went into exile in Argentina.

Subsequently, studies by US research groups questioned the OAS claim that the 2019 elections were rigged.

Or interim government of Jeanine Añez

A right-wing senator, Jeanine Añez, assumed the presidency on an interim basis. When he came to power, ancient texts on social media showed that he had said that the Aymara, indigenous peoples of Bolivia, practiced satanic rituals.

During his months in power, investigations of MAS leaders for terrorism were opened.

In May, his health minister was arrested for embezzling money that would be used to buy respirators for Covid-19 patients.

Áñez postponed the presidential elections twice.