MAS losing runoff election in 4 departments, according to preliminary count in Bolivia

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The ruling Movement Towards Socialism (MAS), led by former president Evo Morales, lost in the four Bolivian departments that held a run-off election this Sunday, according to the preliminary vote count that on Monday gave the victory to the candidates of opposition parties.

The departments of La Paz, Tarija, Pando, and Chuquisaca went to the polls again, since no candidate reached more than 50 % of the votes or more than 40 % with ten points of difference over the next-most voted candidate in the subnational elections of last March 7.

Sunday’s elections closed “the most complex electoral cycle” in Bolivia’s history, as described by the president of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE), Salvador Romero, the process with which the new political map of the country was defined.

At 10 AM local time, the counting of votes in the four Departmental Electoral Tribunals already exceeded 50 percent of the counted tally sheets.

Santos Quispe, of the Jallalla alliance, leads the count in La Paz with 59.33 %, over Franklin Flores, of the MAS, who obtains 40.67 %.

Óscar Montes, of the Unidos por Tarija party, leads the count with 58.68 % over Álvaro Ruiz, MAS candidate, with 41.32 %.

Damián Condori Herrera, of Chuquisaca Somos Todos, is also leading the count with 66.90 % over the MAS candidate, Juan Carlos León, with 33.16 %.

And in Pando, Regis Richter, of the Third System Movement (MTS), leads with 58.54 % over Miguel Becerra, of the ruling MAS, with 41.46 %.

For this election, the MAS, led by former president Evo Morales, expected to win at least three governorships. In the first round, the ruling party won the governorships of Cochabamba, Oruro, and Potosí.

In the deparatment of Santa Cruz, former presidential candidate Luis Fernando Camacho, from the opposition Creemos party, won the governorship; and in Beni Alejandro Unzueta, from the opposition Movimiento Tercer Sistema (MTS) also won.

The election day was marked by a low voter turnout, even though voting in Bolivia is mandatory. Still, according to the TSE president, it is “normal” for this to happen in second-round processes.

The inauguration of the new authorities of Bolivia’s regional and municipal governments is scheduled for May 3.

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