In a peaceful election day with no major incidents, the preliminary results from the Preliminary Results System (Sirepre) surprisingly placed right-wing candidate Rodrigo Paz of the Christian Democratic Party (CDP) ahead with 32.08% of the votes counted, equivalent to 1,546,892 votes in total.
At the press conference where the voting results were announced, the president of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE), Óscar Hassenteufel, affirmed that his promise had been kept, and the preliminary results of the counts attest to this.
He thanked the Bolivians for their civic integrity and their support for the work of the electoral body, which attended. He emphasized that the support of the international observers was also fundamental to the conduct of the elections.
The results reported by the highest electoral body summarize the data from 91% of the votes processed in the Preliminary Results System (Sirepre):
Trespasses counted so far: 90.1%
PDC – Rodrigo Paz: 32.08%
Libre – Jorge Quiroga: 26.94%
Unidad – Samuel Doria Medina: 19.93%
AP – Andrónico Rodríguez: 8.11%
Sumate – Manfred Reyes Villa: 6.63%
MAS – Eduardo del Castillo: 3.14%
AFP – Jhonny Fernández: 1.6%
ADN – Pavel Aracena Vargas: 1.57%
According to this information, a total of 4,851,667 valid votes were cast, equivalent to 78.57% of the votes counted so far, while spoiled votes totaled 1,175,519, representing 19.04% of the total.
The elections took place in a complex political, economic, and social context. The Movement Toward Socialism (MAS), which has governed for almost two decades, appeared weakened by internal conflicts. This could pave the way for neoliberalism to return to power and dismantle the achievements of the Plurinational State.
In these elections, citizens were to vote for president and vice president; 36 members of the Senate; 130 members of the Chamber of Deputies; and seven indigenous peasant representatives and nine representatives to supranational parliamentary bodies, one for each department, were also selected.
The official results should be ready within the next 72 hours, according to authorities. They indicated that the final results for some provinces could be known tomorrow, depending on the number of votes each one received.
If the predicted trend continues in the coming days, it would confirm that Rodrigo Paz Pereira of the Christian Democratic Party (PDC) and Jorge Quiroga of the Free Alliance will face a second runoff, as reflected in Sunday night’s results.
