Bolivians go to polls in election that could end 20 years of socialism | Bolivia
The Bolivians go to surveys in a choice that can switch to the right – and the end of the 20 -year rule by the leftist Movimiento Al Socialismo (MAS).
The party, which came to power with the first election of Evo Morales in 2005, is at risk of losing its legal status if it cannot reach 3% – a threshold that it has not hit in the surveys.
The two opposition candidates are almost tied: the centers-right business king and former Planning Minister Samuel Doria Medina closely followed for former right-wing president Jorge “Tuto” Quiroga.
61 -year -old President Luis Arce decided not to run deeply in the midst of the country’s worst economic crisis.
Former Finance Minister Arce, led by Morales, has gradually controlled MAS in recent years. 36 -year -old government Minister Eduardo Del Castillo, who destroyed about 2%to run for the president.
The 65 -year -old Morales is the target of the arrest order, which is claimed to have a 15 -year -old child, which has led to settling in a coca growing area of Bolivia’s central Bolivia to begin to work again since October.
After registering with another side, but after it was banned by the decisions of the Constitutional and Election Court, Bolivia’s first domestic president called protests that turned into fatal conflicts with the police.
Null calls the supporters to vote on Sunday and they are more than the gang of the leading candidate, That means he won.
“Before the call of Morales, Null votes were about 10%, now 12%. Even the rising, I doubt that even the rising, I doubt that it would rise much higher – and Null votes have not only him, but many reasons.”
As the surveys are historically unreliable in Bolivia and many voters are unstable, Toranzo believes that a third name can cause a potential flow against Doria Medina or Quiroga: 36 -year -old Senator Andrónico Rodríguez.
Rodríguez, the highest pale figure between the third and fifth and fifth, was once seen as the natural heir of Morales because of its native roots and leadership in the Coca Growers Union, but was called a traitor for initiating his own candidacy.
Senator, who has been a MAS member for a long time, chose to leave the party and run with leftist coalition Alianza – another sign of how much the left game is broken.
Enrique Mamani, the leader of the Aymara indigenous organization Ponchos Rojos, said that he would support Senator and call Morales as a real traitor.
“Those who call for empty votes are a handful of traitors for the struggle of our grandmother and grandfather who shed their blood and gave their lives, so one day we may have the right to vote.”
Approximately 7.9 million Bolivia can vote and the preliminary results at 9 o’clock local time.
The main issue of the campaign is the economic crisis that analysts think it has been the worst since 1985 hyperinflation. long queues and rising inflation.
If no candidate does not take more than 50% or at least 40% of the votes ahead of 10 points ahead of the second, an unprecedented second round will take place on October 19.
Something is certain for the analyst torane: MAS will leave power, but “it will be difficult to surrender, because they have kept the parliament, judicial and election authority almost with the exact control of the authority of the judiciary and the election for 20 years”.
Arce, Guardian, said he would respect the result if he was entitled.
Despite his government acknowledged that he was not popular, he said, “He sabotated and boycotted most of our laws and boycotted most of the crime for the crisis and the fall of MAS on his former mentor Morales, his allies of parliament.
“As he wrote in his book Fidel Castro, ‘History will eliminate us, ‘Because in the long run, people will understand everything we have to endure. ”
