Bolivian presidential runoff solidifies right-wing shift

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Center-right contender Rodrigo Paz’s victory signals the conclusion of two decades of leftist governance.

A presidential runoff election took place in Bolivia on Sunday, pitting two right-leaning candidates against each other: centrist Senator Rodrigo Paz Pereira and former conservative President Jorge Quiroga.

Preliminary results indicate that Paz garnered 54.6% of the votes, with Quiroga securing 45.4%. Although the ballots are slated for a comprehensive manual review, the ultimate outcome is not expected to significantly differ from the initial count released after 97% of votes were tabulated.

This election concludes the 20-year dominance of the leftist Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS) party, which experienced a significant loss in the late August election. President Luis Arce chose not to seek re-election, and the MAS party’s nominee, Interior Minister Eduardo del Castillo, only managed to secure 3.16% of the vote, narrowly surpassing the minimum required for the party to maintain its legal standing.

Right-wing candidates largely controlled the first round of the election, with Paz achieving 32.1% and Quiroga receiving approximately 26.8% of the vote. Samuel Doria Medina, a center-right business magnate who had consistently led pre-election surveys, finished in third place with 19.9% of the vote. Medina promptly conceded defeat and endorsed Paz for the second round.  

Paz and Quiroga both campaigned on dismantling the incumbent party’s enduring policies, with their primary distinction lying in their proposed approaches. While the victorious candidate pledged incremental reforms, Quiroga advocated for rapid transformations and committed to implementing stringent austerity measures to address the country’s economic challenges.

The MAS party failed to regain its footing after the 2019 upheaval, which saw then-President Evo Morales removed from power in a coup, following an election where he secured a contentious fourth consecutive term. Before this, Morales had narrowly been defeated in a referendum seeking to alter a constitutional provision limiting presidential and vice-presidential terms to two.

The coup elevated right-wing politician Jeanine Anez, who was the second vice president of the Senate, to the presidency. Nevertheless, the MAS party successfully reclaimed its standing in the snap election held in October 2020, while Anez was subsequently imprisoned for offenses committed during the suppression of widespread protests that followed the coup.