Elections Bolivia | Luis Arce winner of the first round according to polls – Latin America – International

Although there is still no official count, at dawn on Monday interim president Jeanine Áñez assured that the leftist candidate Luis Arce won the Bolivian elections, marking with this the return to power of the party of former president Evo Morales.

(You may be interested: Bolivians go to the polls to decide whether to end the era of Evo Morales)

“Based on the data we have, Mr. Arce and Mr. David Choquehuanca (candidate for the vice presidency) have won the election. I congratulate the winners and ask them to govern thinking of Bolivia and democracy,” Áñez tweeted.

This victory had already been anticipated by former President Evo Morales, from Buenos Aires, where he assured, in a press conference, that his party would be the winner of the electoral elections with the majority of the votes.

“There has been a victory for the Movement towards Socialism-Political Instrument for the Sovereignty of the Peoples (MAS-IPSP). Brother Luis Arce, president, and brother David Choquehuanca vice president. In addition, the MAS IPSP will have the majority of the two Chambers of the Plurinational Legislative Assembly, it is a great responsibility (…) ‘Lucho’ (Luis) will be our president, “said the former head of state.

Arce, when the Ciesmori poll became known for the television channels Unitel and Bolivision where they gave him as the winner with 52.4% of the votes, assured that with his triumph “Bolivia has recovered democracy” and thanked everyone who supported him.

(If you read us from the App find the statements of Arce here)

“With today’s meeting, all Bolivians have taken important steps: we have recovered democracy and, above all, we have recovered hope (…) We are going to govern for all Bolivians, we are going to build a government of national unity, we are going to build the unity of our country“, assured Arce.

In addition, he thanked the international community for the follow-up and accompaniment it did during the elections.

The delays in counting

Given the slowness of the vote count, the country’s interim president, Jeanine Áñez, asked for “patience” and to avoid violent acts. “Patience, we must all have patience to wait for the results without generating any type of violent events”, he said in a television message after polling stations closed after nine hours of voting.

Dissemination of official results is expected to be slow after the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) suspended its quick count system, in order to guarantee the fidelity of the data. “I assure you that we are going to have credible results,” said Áñez.

The leftist Luis Arce and the centrist Carlos Mesa, expressed their doubts about the decision of the TSE, amid fears that a social convulsion would be unleashed such as the one that occurred after the October 2019 elections, which were canceled due to allegations of fraud, and which ended with the resignation of the historic indigenous leader Evo Morales, who for the first time in two decades was excluded from the electoral contest.

After voting in La Paz, Arce – Morales’ former Minister of Economy – said that “it seems not very wise” to suspend the quick count hours before the election.

“It is not ideal, but we understand that (the court) has chosen the path of guaranteeing the absolute security of the vote,” said former President Mesa (2003-2005), of the Citizen Community party.

Despite the fears, the Vice Minister of Citizen Security, Wilson Santamaría, assured that there was a “quiet day throughout the country.”

Indeed, the 7.3 million voters went to the polls calmly, despite the tensions of the campaign, with the cities under military and police protection. People were also respectful of the biosecurity measures due to the pandemic, which slowed down voting and took away the festive tinge of other times.

Agency / AFP / La Paz