The result could not be more surprising. As the marathonist who recovers positions in the final attack, the candidate of the Christian Democratic Party, Rodrigo Paz Pereira, son of former president Jaime Paz Zamora, for many not even an option to take into account in political analysis, won the first round with 32% of the votes. On October 19 he will play the presidency with an old acquaintance of the Bolivians, representative of the most radical wing on the right, second in the final scrutiny with 27%.
The result left the liberal Samuel Doria Medina out of the race, who was in his fourth attempt and until the day of the election he led the polls. He finally obtained only 20% of the votes. Doria Medina hurried to recognize defeat and gave her support to peace in the tiebreaker. Andrónico Rodríguez, the candidate of the left who hoped to keep the votes – filed as a candidate for the Constitutional Court for having been re -elected – had to conform the room, with 8% of the votes.
The winner of the first round of the Bolivian elections was born in Santiago de Compostela 57 years ago, during his father’s Spanish exile during the Bolivian dictatorship. The campaign began with 2% support with the acronym of the Christian Democratic Party. His takeoff was fast. Paz managed to attract, against all prognosis, part of the historical vote of the MAS and also of the old conservative policy represented by Tuto Quiroga, Doria Medina and the rest of the candidates. His formula partner, Edmand Lara, an active plundering in networks and became popular for denouncing cases of corruption in the force he integrated.
Paz silently found the formula of success by presenting himself as the face of change, far from the extremes. “We are the voice of those who did not appear in the surveys, that we had no voice, that of a Bolivia that nobody took into account and now has a voice,” he said in his triumphant speech. Surrounded by his followers, he closed the discourse to the shout of “renewal, renewal, damn.” If you manage to convince the voters of Doria Medina and Andrónico Rodríguez, he will have the presidency in the palm of the hand at the October tiebreaker.
Bolivia enters a new political stage of Evo Morales. The Cocalero leader was a candidate for being prevented. Also charge with complaints for stupro and has an arrest request that has not been fulfilled. This Sunday, he voted early in Lauca ñ (Chapare), escorted by an operation of 150 men and women who protect him from the police. The indigenous leader then remained active in X. “If it were not for Luis Arce, we won these elections!”, He wrote, concentrating the attacks, once again, against the president, which he accuses of proscribing him and stealing the acronym of the MAS.
Morales campaigned for the null vote and it was not bad. 19% of Bolivians, almost 1.2 million votes, complied with the order of the Cocalero leader, a flow that will undoubtedly try to enforce in the future. He will be a weight actor in the future, but outside the institutions.
The fight between Morales and Arce for the control of the left and the indigenous and peasant movements ended up farting to each other. The more, appropriate by Arce, obtained 3.15% of the votes, just in the minimum necessary to save the acronym. The rest of the left hoped that the votes of the disenchanted would go to Andrónico Rodríguez, once Dolphin of Morales, but in the ranks of those considered traitors since he decided to be a candidate. It was a calculation error. They ended mostly in the hands of a cover, Rodrigo Paz Pereira.
The fight for the second round began on the same election night. Tuto Quiroga proclaimed in front of his followers that Bolivia would now be “free for ever and ever.” And he took care of one for one to his rivals, in a studied seduction strategy. Doria Medina, third in the contest, has already advanced that her option will be peace.
The former president, who goes for his fourth candidacy, will have to strive to seduce the center if he intends to overcome in the second round. Load having been vice president during the democratic experience of the military coupist Hugo Banzer Suárez in 1997. And his political brand is a marked rejection of the most leader, Evo Morales, something he did not forget on Sunday. “The country can be changed with the force of the vote, against blockages and sabotage,” he said, referring to the traditional methods of union struggle
The election has left without defining the name of the new president, but already drew Parliament, until now controlled by the MAS. The result is a photo of the left debacle. In deputies, the most obtained, so far, only a legislator of 130. In the Senate, of the 21 seats he put into play, he did not renew any and was left without representation. The first minority in the Upper House will be for the Christian Democratic Party of Rodrigo Paz, with 15, followed by 12 representatives of the Free Alliance of Tuto Quiroga. Andrónico Rodríguez’s left was out.
