Photo by Ronaldo Schemidt
On Sunday, October 25th, Bolivians voted for their new president after finally breaking free from the rule of Evo Morales. Morales is a socialist who made major changes to Bolivia, including standing up for the rights of indigenous people and lifting thousands of citizens out of poverty. However, many people viewed him as an oppressive ruler and accused him of things such as alleged fraud. He had governed Bolivia for 14 years beforehand, so citizens were ready for a change and to have someone new come into office. Needless to say, when in October 2019 Morales won the presidential election, people were not too pleased about it. Mass protests occurred, and Bolivia became a country of violence. Morales was finally exiled, leaving Bolivians to an undecided fate as to who would govern their country. Citizens had doubts about this year’s redo of last year’s election, as they didn’t want a repeat of the violent events that occurred. Surprisingly, however, the elections went smoothly, and their new president Luis Arce has already brought hope to the future of Bolivia. As Fernana Wanderly, director of the socioeconomic institute at the Universidad Catolica Boliviana said, “Democracy won in Bolivia.” So why were Bolivians fed up with Morales, and what changes does Arce bring to office?
In October 2019, Evo Morales, president of Bolivia, announced that he would be running for a fourth term in office. However, many people were angry about Morales’ decision. BBC States “Mr Morales argued that he needed more time to carry out all the reforms he had set off to achieve. However, his apparent victory in the election sparked weeks of protest, while international monitors said they had found "clear manipulations'' of the election result. This led to his resignation less than a month later.” Morales stated his reasons for resigning were to help protect families of political allies after their homes were burned down due to protests of people arguing for him to leave the office. There was also confusion among the voting polls, as citizens were unaware when the results count stopped for 24 hours the night of the election. The OAS said there were hidden date servers, manipulated voting receipts, and forged signatures taking place as well. Because of this, people were claiming the election was rigged. In the end, Morales won by a 10 point percentage boost. Many people urged Morales to step down from office, including the army chief Gen Williams and the military. They believed Morales leaving would allow for Bolivia to regain stability and peace among the protestors. Morales denied all accusations of election fraud, however he did resign and fled to Argentina, and has been there ever since.
The presidential election was postponed twice due to coronavirus safety procedures after this. During this time Bolivia needed someone to govern their country, so on November 12, 2019, conservative Senator Jeanine Anez took over as interim president shortly after Morales announced his resignation. According to the BBC, “[Anez] said her task would be to lead the country to a rerun of the October 2019 elections. This vote, in which Mr Morales sought a controversial fourth term, had ended in chaos, conflict and allegations of fraud.” Nonetheless, not everyone was happy with her decision. Many people accused her of taking advantage of the Covid-19 situation and victimizing Morales and his supporters, instead of ensuring that the elections went well. Morales was clearly not too happy with Anez either. He referred to the Anez government as a “dictatorship.” The new elections were originally designed to take place on May 3rd, 2020, but due to Covid-19 they were bushed back to September 6th, and finally moved to October 18th.
The political candidates for this year’s election were Luis Arce, an ally of Evo Morales, and Carlos Mesa, who served as president of Bolivia from 2003-2005. Senator Anez was originally going to run for president, however she resigned a month beforehand because she believed Arce would win. Arce served as economy minister under then-President Morales. BBC claims “As minister, [Arce] oversaw the nationalisation of Bolivia's mining, gas and telecommunications industries. Mr Arce also helped to launch the Bank of the South, of a regional development fund for infrastructure and social development projects.” Naturally, all of Morales’ supporters would be voting for Arce since they shared the same beliefs. Morales even claimed that Arce would return Bolivia to its path of economic growth. Before the elections took place, Arce had a 20-percentage-point lead in the quick-count. This meant that he would have double the 10 percentage points needed to win outright in round one of the election. Therefore, Arce was unofficially president before the elections even took place, with Morales claiming him as the winner. Arce ended up winning 55% of the vote of Bolivians, with Mesa housing just below 29%. This was a win far bigger than anyone had predicted.
Elections this year went much more smoothly and peacefully than last year’s. Authorities ensured the result was reliable before announcing anything, in order to prevent repeating the same chaotic events as the previous year. As quoted by The New York Times, “Mr. Morales… presided over the country at a time when a commodities boom sent money flowing into the country.” This election is a step in a new path for Bolivia, one where they can achieve political stability with a promising democratic system leading the way. Plus, Bolivians don’t have to worry about having another man dominate their country for almost 15 years, as Arce promised to stay in office for only 5. Although this past year for Bolivians has been filled with uncertainty, protests, violence, and political instability, the country is finally overcoming the crisis with a clean election, already putting them in a step of the right direction. Time will only tell what the future of Bolivia will be like, but based on current procedures their potential of becoming a successful political system is already showing signs of being conceivably possible…
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Written By: Katrina Gillen
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