Paz

Oct. 20 (UPI) — Bolivia is poised to elect Rodrigo Paz, a right-leaning centrist senator, as president on Sunday, besting former conservative president Jorge Quiroga in an election runoff.

According to preliminary results from the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, Paz, 58, of the Christian Democratic Party, won with 54.6% of the more than 6.5 million people in the country who cast ballots on Sunday.

Paz is the son of former President Jaime Paz Zamora, who served from 1989 to 1993.

Paz was elected after coming out on top of the mid-August presidential election — a surprise rise to the top of a heap of candidates as National Unit Front party’s Samuel Doria Medina was expected to be the winner at the time.

Sunday’s runoff was the result of neither Paz nor Quiroga, 65, winning the presidency outright in that August contest.

With both Paz and Quiroga being conservatives, their victories in the runoff ensured a right-leaning president would lead the country for the first time since 2006, when Bolivia elected union organizer Evo Morales as its first Indigenous president, who served until his resignation amid protests over voting irregularities in 2019.

“Here we were, here we are and here we will continue to be,” Quiroga said in a statement on Facebook as the election results became clear. “THANK YOU! Together we will keep working for a Free Bolivia.”

Paz won on a campaign to establish a market-based economy with the motto of “Capitalism for All.”

Quiroga had similarly championed a market-based economic system during his campaign, which emphasized private property rights for citizens.

The election comes as the South American country faces an economic crisis, with voters’ shunning of the leftist Movement Towards Socialism seen as a repudiation of the party.

“I congratulate the President-elect of Bolivia, Rodrigo Paz, for his victory in the elections and the entire Bolivian people for their democratic participation at the ballot boxes,” Chilean President Gabriel Boric Font said in a statement.

“From Chile, we reaffirm our commitment to strengthening cooperation and joint work between brother countries for the benefit of our peoples.”

U.S. Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-Fla., said Bolivia, with the election of Paz, “has turned the page & defeated socialism.”

“From the U.S. Congress, I wish your administration great success as you restore freedom, prosperity & democratic values to Bolivia,” he said on X.

Paz, the son of a former president, promises ‘capitalism for all’ as election ends 20 years of socialist government.

Bolivians have elected Rodrigo Paz of the centre-right Christian Democratic Party (PDC) as their new president, ending almost 20 years of governance by the Movement for Socialism (MAS) party.

With 97 percent of ballots counted, Paz had won 54.5 percent of the vote in Sunday’s run-off race, well ahead of right-wing former interim President Jorge “Tuto” Quiroga, with 45.4 percent of the vote, according to the country’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE).

Paz, 58, followed his father, former left-wing President Jaime Zamora, into politics.

After studying economics in the United States, Paz returned home to Bolivia, where he went on to become a city councillor and mayor of the southern city of Tarija, before becoming a senator for the region in 2020.

He has pledged a “capitalism for all” approach, promising tax cuts, tariff reductions, and the decentralisation of the national government.

After the results were announced, Paz’s vice-presidential running mate, Edmand Lara, made a call for “unity and reconciliation”.

“We must ensure the supply of diesel and gasoline. People are suffering. We need to stabilise the prices of the basic food basket, and we must put an end to corruption,” Lara said.

Sunday’s run-off came after the incumbent MAS party suffered a major defeat in August’s preliminary election, after former left-wing President Evo Morales was barred from running and outgoing President Luis Arce, who had fallen out with Morales, opted out of the race.

Courts had ruled against Morales’s candidacy over term limits and technicalities related to party affiliation.

The division within their left-wing coalition, along with the country’s deep economic crisis, meant few expected MAS to return to power.

Outside of the National Congress, the new president will still face stiff opposition from Morales, who remains popular, especially among Indigenous Bolivians.

On Sunday, Morales told reporters that the two candidates each represented only “a handful of people in Bolivia”.

“They do not represent the popular movement, much less the Indigenous movement,” he said.

Arce is due to leave office on November 8 after serving a single presidential term that began in 2020. Bolivia’s constitution allows for two terms, but he did not seek re-election.

Economic woes

The Andean country has been struggling through an economic crisis, including annual inflation of almost 25 percent and critical shortages of US dollars and fuel.

Bolivians took to the streets to protest high prices and hours-long waits for fuel, bread and other basics in the lead-up to the August 17 general election.

Bolivia had enjoyed more than a decade of strong growth and Indigenous upliftment under Morales, who nationalised the gas sector and ploughed the proceeds into social programmes that halved extreme poverty during his stint in power between 2006 and 2019.

But after Morales, who was outspoken on environmental issues and climate change, chose not to expand the country’s gas sector, energy revenues fell from a peak of $6.1bn in 2013 to $1.6bn in 2024, seeing the government run out of foreign exchange needed to import fuel, wheat and other foodstuffs.

Meanwhile, Paz has been unclear about whether he plans to continue a fuel subsidy that has cost the government billions of dollars, at times saying he will restrict it to “vulnerable sectors” of the population.