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- Socialist presidential candidate Luis Arce is likely to become Bolivia’s new president, as an unofficial count shows.
- The official count has not yet been completed.
- Conservative Interim President Jeanine Áñez has already congratulated Arce on the victory.
In Bolivia, after months of unrest and the reign of a transitional government, new elections were held on Sunday. The elections were peaceful. Presidential candidate Luis Arce, who, like Evo Morales, belongs to the left-wing MAS party, possibly would have won the elections. This is shown by unofficial voter investigations carried out by the media research institute “Ciesmori”.
The results were released around midnight. Therefore, Arce has received 52.4 percent of the valid votes. According to Ciesmori, his centrist rival Carlos Mesa only got 31.5 percent.
A candidate needs 40 percent of the vote and a 10-point lead to win the election; otherwise, there will be a second round in November. The official count has not yet evaluated all the votes. Bolivians will likely remain in the dark for several days on the outcome of the elections.
Sure Victory Speeches
Former President Evo Morales is convinced of the results. “All the data known so far indicate that the movement for socialism has won a victory,” he told a press conference in the Argentine capital, Buenos Aires. He recommended Arce as a presidential candidate and provided good advice to the campaign. He also congratulated his teammates on Twitter and thanked the fans for their commitment.
Even Arce himself seemed confident of victory at his press conference shortly after midnight in the capital, La Paz. “We will work and resume the process of change without hatred,” he told reporters. “We will learn and overcome the mistakes we (before) made as a party of the Movement for Socialism.”
Jeanine Áñez, the conservative interim president who took office in a power vacuum last year, said Arce appeared to be the winner and congratulated him.
Democracy test
Sunday’s elections, held amid the coronavirus pandemic, were seen as a test of Bolivian democracy after elections were canceled last year on allegations of election fraud. After bloody protests, Morales resigned after almost 14 years in power.
The opposition conservatives are unlikely to be satisfied with the confirmation of the election results. This would possibly strengthen Morales’ image as an indigenous socialist leader, although he has lived in exile in Argentina since the controversial elections.
The most important election since 1982
Morales has been an iconic and enduring figure in a wave of leftist presidents in the region for the past two decades. The election is seen as a litmus test of the continued influence of the left in Latin America. “The election will be the most important since Bolivia returned to democracy in 1982,” said a political analyst, Carlos Valverde.
