Bolivia: Luis Arce, dolphin of Evo Morales, becomes president in the first round

Bolivia has a new president. Luis Arce, the candidate of the left and dolphin of former head of state Evo Morales, won the presidential election in Bolivia in the first round on Sunday with more than 52% of the vote, according to several exit polls .

The former Minister of the Economy, 57, is more than 20 points ahead of his main rival, the centrist Carlos Mesa, and ensures the return to power of the Movement towards Socialism (MAS), after the resignation in November 2019 of Evo Morales, accused by the opposition of electoral fraud.

Establishment of a “government of national unity”

Bolivia “has returned to democracy”, rejoiced the winner during a press conference in the company of its vice-president David Choquehuanca. “We are going to work for all Bolivians, we are going to set up a government of national unity,” he added. Acting President Jeanine Añez congratulated Luis Arce on his victory: “We do not yet have an official tally, but according to the data we have, Luis Arce and David Choquehuanca have won the elections,” a she said on Twitter.

According to a poll broadcast by the private channel Unitel, Luis Arce obtained 52.4% of the vote, against 31.5% for the former president Carlos Mesa (2003-2005), 67 years old. Another poll released by the Jubileo Catholic Foundation credits the left-wing candidate with 53% of the vote, against 30.8% for his rival. At the same time, more than seven hours after the closing of the polling stations, the official results were only known for 6% of them.

From Argentina, where he is a refugee, Evo Morales claimed victory for his party: “The MAS largely won the elections, including in the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies. Arce is the president of Bolivia, ”he told reporters in Buenos Aires where he lives.

Since the end of the voting operations, which took place in peace, calls for “patience” from Bolivians have multiplied in the face of the extreme slowness of the disclosure of official results. “For an election so delicate for the future of the country, we must privilege the certainty concerning the electoral results”, declared the president of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE), Salvador Romero, during a press conference.

While welcoming the good conduct of the ballot, “a successful day for Bolivian democracy”, Salvador Romero recalled “that the official count is done with the arrival of the minutes” in the departmental electoral courts and that “it takes time. time “.

TSE renewed

Previously, M^me Añez, had already asked voters to show “patience” and “not to provoke violence”. The government had indicated earlier that the poll had taken place “in peace throughout the country”, apart from a few isolated incidents.

The slowness of the dissemination of official results results from the decision of the electoral tribunal on Saturday not to use a rapid count via photos of the minutes sent from the polling stations allowing preliminary results to be obtained, but to favor a manual count full in departmental centers, to avoid tensions. The president of the TSE, however, indicated in his speech that the media were allowed to broadcast exit polls.

For the first time in 20 years, Evo Morales (2006-2019), emblematic leader of the South American left, was not a candidate for the presidency. On November 10, 2019, he resigned in the midst of a political crisis, accused of fraud by the opposition, while he was running for a fourth term. Some 7.3 million Bolivians were called upon to elect their president, but also their vice-president, and to renew the bicameral Parliament, in the unprecedented context of the coronavirus pandemic.

However, many Bolivians feared a repeat of the post-election violence that left 36 people dead last year. They have rushed in recent days to shops to stock up. “I really don’t know what’s going to happen, I’m afraid it will be even worse,” Virginia Luna, 41, told Agence France-Presse, leaving her polling station. To ensure the transparency of the ballot, the composition of the electoral tribunal has been renewed. Observers were dispatched by the Organization of American States (OAS), the European Union (EU) and the Carter Foundation, among others.

In 2019, the count had been suspended for more than 20 hours. In his recovery, Evo Morales had been declared the winner in the first round. The opposition had denounced fraud, and clashes had taken place between supporters and detractors of the MAS. Released by police and the army, Evo Morales eventually resigned, before fleeing to Mexico and then Argentina.