Bolivia Ditches Socialists After Two Decades 

Bolivia’s ruling socialist party was defeated Sunday in the country’s presidential election for the first time in two decades, setting the stage for a runoff between a centrist and a right-wing candidate amid the country’s worst economic crisis in years, the Washington Post reported. 

Centrist Senator Rodrigo Paz won the highest number of votes (32.18 percent) but fell short of an outright victory. He will now face right-wing former President Jorge ‘Tuto’ Quiroga, who finished second (26.94 percent), in a runoff set for Oct. 19, according to CNN. 

Paz, who is known for advocating moderate economic reforms, was a surprise winner at a time when the country of 2 million people is seeing a grave fuel shortage, depleted foreign reserves, spiraling debt, and inflation in double digits.  

A former mayor of the southern city of Tarija, Paz campaigned to fight corruption, increase regional funding, provide easier access to credit, and offer tax breaks to support the formal economy. 

Meanwhile, Quiroga, who was president between 2001 and 2002, campaigned to privatize unprofitable state-owned enterprises, stabilize the economy, and curb inflation. He also said he would try to negotiate $12 billion in financing from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. 

Sunday’s results dealt a major blow to the ruling Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) party, which has been in power since the momentous December 2005 election, which saw the ascendance of Bolivia’s first indigenous president, Evo Morales. 

Morales, MAS founder, had served for three terms. He was barred from running for office for a fourth.  

Incumbent President Luis Arce, a former Morales ally, dropped out of the presidential race after he became extremely unpopular due to his handling of the country’s economy, even as infighting escalated within MAS.  

The official MAS candidate, Eduardo del Castillo, finished sixth with 3.16 percent of the vote – he was booed out of the premises where he cast his vote, the BBC reported.  

Castillo’s former MAS colleague, Senate President Andrónico Rodríguez, who earned 8 percent of the vote, also faced citizens’ wrath. People threw stones and set off an explosive device where Rodríguez voted, but no one was injured, according to authorities.  

Political observers noted that the rise of a moderate such as Paz appears to reflect that Bolivians are hesitant to fully return to the right-wing establishment that MAS founder Morales swept aside in the 2005 election, when he ended the country’s two-decade experiment with free-market capitalism.