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Luis Arce, center, Bolivian presidential candidate for the Movement party to Socialism, MAS, and Vice President David Choquehuanca, on the right, celebrate at a press convention where they claim victory after the general election in La Paz, Bolivia, on October 19. 2020.
Juan Karita / AP
Evo Morales’ successor, Luis Arce, on Monday won a presidential election that gave the impression of rejecting the right-wing policies of Bolivia’s interim government after the left-wing leader resigned and fled the country a year ago.
Officials have not published any official and rapid recounts of the effects of Sunday’s vote, however, two independent polls at the decided polling stations showed Arce, with an advantage of approximately 20 percentage points over his nearest rival, much more than mandatory for a race. Off.
“We don’t yet have an official recount, but to the knowledge we have, Mr. Arce (and his vice presidential candidate) won the election,” Interim President Jeanine Oez, Morales’ rival, said on Twitter. congratulate the winners and ask them to rule with Bolivia and democracy in mind. “
Meanwhile, Arce called for calm in the bitterly divided nation and said he would seek to form a government of national unity, his party Movement to Socialism.
“I think the other Bolivian people have to go back to where we were,” Arce said, surrounded by a small organization of supporters, some in the classic Andean attire in honor of the country’s indigenous roots.
Pre-election polls had shown that a bow was in the lead but lacked votes to avoid a run-off in November, probably opposed to former centrist President Carlos Mesa. To win in the first round, a candidate wants more than 50% of the vote, or 40% with an advantage of at least 10 percentage points over the second-place candidate.
The independent recount showed Arce just over 50% of the vote and a merit of about 20 questions about Mesa.
Still, the first returns — with 16% counted — from official scrutiny were held by Mesa with an advantage of 44% to 35% over Arce on Monday, votes that seem to come largely from urban spaces than from rural centers that have been the foundations of Morales’ support.
Arce, who oversaw an outbreak of expansion and strong poverty alleviation as Morales’ economy minister for more than a decade, will face a war difficult to review to revive that expansion.
The increase in the value of Bolivia’s mineral exports, which has helped drive this progress, has faded, and the new coronavirus has hit impoverished, shorelocked Bolivia more forcefully than almost any other country consistently with human capital. people died of COVID-19.
Arce also faces the challenge of emerging from the shadow of his former chief, which remains polarizing but has allowed the discreet and trained economist in the UK to mount a strong campaign.
Ez’s government has tried to overthrow many of Morales’ policies and take the country from its left-wing alliances. The newly installed electoral government has banned Morales from running for the workplace on Sunday, even for a seat in Congress, and faces legal proceedings so it’s false accusations of terrorism if he returns home.
Few expect the irascible politician to stand idly by in a long-term Arce government.
Bolivia, once one of the most politically volatile countries in Latin America, experienced a rare era of stability for 14 years Morales, the country’s first indigenous president.
Morales, a flame breeder of years of training who has become leader of a coca farmers’ union, had been immensely popular while overseeing an export-driven economic increase, but was eroding due to his reluctance to give up power, developing authoritarian impulses and a series of corruption. Scandals.
He shrugged in a public vote that set limits on the mandate and participated in the October 2019 presidential vote, which he claimed to have won little, but a long pause in denouncing the effects fueled suspicions of fraud and national protests occurred in the deaths of at least 36 people.
When police and army chiefs left, Morales resigned and fled the country, along with several key aides. Morales called his overthrow a blow.
Hoping for similar confusion this time, the electoral government said it would not publish a quick recount of the effects, only the slow official recount, which they said could take only five days.
All seats of the 136 members of the Legislative Assembly were contested, with the expected effects echoing the presidential race.
“Bolivia’s new executive and legislative leaders will face demanding situations in a polarized country, devastated by COVID-19 and hampered by endemicly weak institutions,” said washington for Latin America, a Washington-based human rights organization.
Morales ruled Bolivia from 2006 to 2019 and was the last survivor of the so-called “pink wave” of left-wing leaders who ravaged South America with force, adding Brazilian Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Venezuelan Hugo Chavez.
Although outrage over corruption has prompted a resurgence of right-wing politics, particularly in Brazil, Arce’s victory will surely revitalize the left, whose anthem of economic justice has great appeal in a region where poverty is expected to reach 37% this year. according to the United Nations.
Possibly Arce would have benefited from the overreach and mistakes of Morales’ enemies. A conservative senator, Ez, proclaimed he he heeded interim president amid last year’s tumult and accepted through the courts. His administration, despite the absence of a majority in Congress tried to prosecute Morales and his most sensible advisers while canceling their policies, which caused more unrest and polarization.
“Many others have said that if it is the proposed alternative, it would return to the existing situation,” said Andrés Gómez, a political scientist based in La Paz.
He has resigned his candidate position in Sunday’s presidential election while absent from the polls, prompting Mesa, who ruled Bolivia after the resignation in 2003 of former President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada amid widespread protests.
The Trump administration, which celebrated Morales’ departure as a turning point for democracy in Latin America, was more cautious when Morales’ finger-picked successor emerged in the polls. A senior State Department official said this week that the United States is in a box position with all Bolivians decided on a loose, fair vote.
By Carlos Valdez and Joshua Goodman / AP
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