EDIT.- Final results added (source for results)
EDIT.- Results invalidated, new elections called (see OAS preliminary report)
So, with all the talks recently about Latin American issues and politics in Era, I thought we should have a general thread to talk about the 2019 General elections in Bolivia, which are happening today, Sunday October 20th.
Context
Bolivia has a presidentialist democratic system, in which a President and Vice-President are elected once every five years. Bolivia's democracy has been quite fragile across the 20th century with multiple military dictatorships (many of them backed by the US in the context of the Cold War). Since the 1990s, Bolivia had had a multi-party system (called in Bolivian context, sistema pluripartidista), in which during the 90s and 2000s parties of all political leanings ended up forming huge across-the-board coalitions in order to form stable governments.
In 2005, Movimiento al Socialismo's (Movement towards Socialism) Evo Morales won the general elections, becoming the country's first indigenous president. In a country where close to 60% of the population is of American indigenous descent but the political and economical power had been historically in the hands of a small white and mestizo minority, the rise of Morales into politics seemed like the turn of a new time in Bolivian politics, and it certainly has been in a way.
Morales' administrations have been controversial in many ways. Aligned with figures such as the late Hugo Chávez and Fidel Castro, Morales has claim to lead Bolivarian socialism into the country, although in reality save some nationalisations during his first administration, most of his governments have been moderate in nature. His time has coincided with that of an economic boom for Bolivia, which many claim that the president has not known how to take advantage of. Claims of rampant corruption and a megalomaniac personality (like his other Bolivarian counterparts) have become common during his now multiple administrations. That being said, poverty has definitely decreased and a new middle class has emerged, in what we can call a time of economic prosperity for Bolivia. Poverty has decreased and literacy has increased in rural regions. Some are critical of the increasing cult of personality being pushed by the government, with him having the nickname of el hermano Evo ("brother Evo").
Bolivian constitution allows only for 2 consecutive terms, so a nation-wide referendum took place in 2016 to decide whether or not this term limit should be abolished. The referendum, proposed and pushed by the ruling party, had the obvious objective of allowing Morales to stay in power. His entire political party has been built around him, and no successor has been named or even proposed. The 'No' option won with a 51.3% of support, thwarting Morales' hopes of re-election.
Morales challenged the results and the country's Constitutional Court - largely controlled by judges supporting Morales - ruled that Evo Morales could run for president indefinitely.
So here we are today.
The big four
(according to polls)
Movimiento al Socialismo-Instrumento Político para la Soberanía de los Pueblos (MAS-IPSP)
Movement towards Socialism - Political Instrument for Peoples' Sovereignty
Tagline: Futuro Seguro (Safe future)
Candidate: Evo Morales (1959), syndicalist - looking for a third term after invalidating the 2006 referendum results.
Political leaning: Left / Bolivarian socialism / populism
Results: 43.8% - likely going to second round
Difficult to define, party is self-defined as leftist, but its policies and ideologies end up being unpredictable. Originally Marxist-Leninist, has evolved into a moderate variant of Bolivarian socialism. Morales has had controversial statements about LGTB and women (claiming the hormones in chicken creates homosexuals, and making plentiful of ignorant sexist commentaries about women), but his administration helped establish the law of Gender Identity which allows Trans people to get new IDs matching their gender. Claimed 'not to understand gay people, but respects them'. Claimed that 'abortion is a crime', but his party proposed make abortion free and universal.
Comunidad Ciudadana (C)
Coalition of: Frente Revolucionario de Izquierda (Revolutionary Leftist Front) and Soberanía y Libertad (Sovereignty and Freedom)
Citizen's Community
Tagline: Ya es demasiado (Too much already)
Candidate: Carlos Mesa Gisbert (1953), historian, journalist and ex-president of Bolivia (2003-2005)
Political leaning: Centrism, economic liberalism
Results: 38.2% - likely going to second round
Mesa was vice-president and president (2003-2005) in the past and is a reknown Bolivian historian. A centrist, basically right in the middle out of every political position you can come up with, it's like he does not want to upset anyone. One of the few parties that mentions gender equality in its program, declares himself 'respectful' of LGTB people but takes no position as to whether or not they should get more rights (like marriage). No opinion on abortion either. Secularism.
Demócratas: Bolivia dice No
Democrats: Bolivia says No
Tagline: Las Manos Limpias / Bolivia dice No (Clean Hands / Bolivia says No)
Candidate: Óscar Ortiz Antelo (1969), businessman and national senator
Political leaning: Liberalism, federalism
Results: 4.4%
Coming from a well-off eastern Bolivian family, Ortiz has always been in close relationship with the eastern Bolivia business people. Serving an old demand from his home region of Santa Cruz, proposes to devolve powers to the Bolivian departments, true federalism in the future. Religious, pro-business, low taxes, want energetic self-reliance, anti-LGTB, as a senator voted against the Gender Identity bill (which gave rights to trans people), anti-abortion, marriage only between man and woman.
Partido Demócrata-Cristiano (PDC)
Christian-Democratic Party
Tagline: Chi Puede (Chi can [do it])
Candidate: Chi Hyun Chung (1970), university professor, evangelical pastor, born in South Korea
Political leaning: Conservative, Christian traditionalism
Results: 8.6% - big suprise, becomes the country's third political force
Self-defined as a 'Christian capitalist', claims he will rule Bolivia by following the Bible. Decided to run because he saw 'Bolivia becoming communist'. A surprise evangelist in a mostly Catholic country. Supports federalism and self-rule for indigenous peoples. Anti-LGTB, proposes psychiatric therapies for them. Pro small-businesses.
Others:
Felix Patzi (Movimiento Tercer Sistema / Third System Movement), excision of MAS-IPSP. Patzi is an indigenous Aymara. Pro-indigenous rights, extremely sexist (believes violence against women was caused by them getting into the workforce, proposes they should either stay at home or accompany their husbands at their jobs), anti-LGTB, pro-family. Results: 1.1%
Victor Hugo Cárdenas (Unidad Cívica Solidaridad / Civic Union Solidarity), also evangelist, and indigenous Aymara with a long public trajectory. Overall conservative, against LGTB marriage or adoption, anti-abortion. Want to arm women so they can defend themselves against men. Results: 0.5%
Others: 1.1%
Honorary mention:
Partido de Acción Nacionalista - Bolivia (PAN-BOL)
Party of Nationalist Action - Bolivia
And I say honorary because she is polling low, but she is the only woman candidate and has interesting things to say.
Tagline: Pan Para Bolivia (Pan for Bolivia, playing with the word 'pan' - the initials of her party but also 'bread' in Spanish)
Results: 0.7%
Candidate: Ruth Nina Juchani (1972), lawyer and syndicalist, before that she owned a small business and was a taxi driver
Political leaning: Left, social progressivism
The only woman candidate and also of indigenous ancestry. Nina has been involved in politics for over a decade, being a national senator. Against discrimination of LGTB people, proposes a national debate on the issue of adoption. Wants to tackle the issues of violence against women and children living in the streets by creating new ministries dedicated exclusively to that. Pro-abortion. Her priorities: women rights and justice.
EDIT.- Results invalidated, new elections called (see OAS preliminary report)
So, with all the talks recently about Latin American issues and politics in Era, I thought we should have a general thread to talk about the 2019 General elections in Bolivia, which are happening today, Sunday October 20th.
Context
Bolivia has a presidentialist democratic system, in which a President and Vice-President are elected once every five years. Bolivia's democracy has been quite fragile across the 20th century with multiple military dictatorships (many of them backed by the US in the context of the Cold War). Since the 1990s, Bolivia had had a multi-party system (called in Bolivian context, sistema pluripartidista), in which during the 90s and 2000s parties of all political leanings ended up forming huge across-the-board coalitions in order to form stable governments.
In 2005, Movimiento al Socialismo's (Movement towards Socialism) Evo Morales won the general elections, becoming the country's first indigenous president. In a country where close to 60% of the population is of American indigenous descent but the political and economical power had been historically in the hands of a small white and mestizo minority, the rise of Morales into politics seemed like the turn of a new time in Bolivian politics, and it certainly has been in a way.
Morales' administrations have been controversial in many ways. Aligned with figures such as the late Hugo Chávez and Fidel Castro, Morales has claim to lead Bolivarian socialism into the country, although in reality save some nationalisations during his first administration, most of his governments have been moderate in nature. His time has coincided with that of an economic boom for Bolivia, which many claim that the president has not known how to take advantage of. Claims of rampant corruption and a megalomaniac personality (like his other Bolivarian counterparts) have become common during his now multiple administrations. That being said, poverty has definitely decreased and a new middle class has emerged, in what we can call a time of economic prosperity for Bolivia. Poverty has decreased and literacy has increased in rural regions. Some are critical of the increasing cult of personality being pushed by the government, with him having the nickname of el hermano Evo ("brother Evo").
Bolivian constitution allows only for 2 consecutive terms, so a nation-wide referendum took place in 2016 to decide whether or not this term limit should be abolished. The referendum, proposed and pushed by the ruling party, had the obvious objective of allowing Morales to stay in power. His entire political party has been built around him, and no successor has been named or even proposed. The 'No' option won with a 51.3% of support, thwarting Morales' hopes of re-election.
Morales challenged the results and the country's Constitutional Court - largely controlled by judges supporting Morales - ruled that Evo Morales could run for president indefinitely.
So here we are today.
The big four
(according to polls)
Movimiento al Socialismo-Instrumento Político para la Soberanía de los Pueblos (MAS-IPSP)
Movement towards Socialism - Political Instrument for Peoples' Sovereignty
Tagline: Futuro Seguro (Safe future)
Candidate: Evo Morales (1959), syndicalist - looking for a third term after invalidating the 2006 referendum results.
Political leaning: Left / Bolivarian socialism / populism
Results: 43.8% - likely going to second round
Difficult to define, party is self-defined as leftist, but its policies and ideologies end up being unpredictable. Originally Marxist-Leninist, has evolved into a moderate variant of Bolivarian socialism. Morales has had controversial statements about LGTB and women (claiming the hormones in chicken creates homosexuals, and making plentiful of ignorant sexist commentaries about women), but his administration helped establish the law of Gender Identity which allows Trans people to get new IDs matching their gender. Claimed 'not to understand gay people, but respects them'. Claimed that 'abortion is a crime', but his party proposed make abortion free and universal.
Comunidad Ciudadana (C)
Coalition of: Frente Revolucionario de Izquierda (Revolutionary Leftist Front) and Soberanía y Libertad (Sovereignty and Freedom)
Citizen's Community
Tagline: Ya es demasiado (Too much already)
Candidate: Carlos Mesa Gisbert (1953), historian, journalist and ex-president of Bolivia (2003-2005)
Political leaning: Centrism, economic liberalism
Results: 38.2% - likely going to second round
Mesa was vice-president and president (2003-2005) in the past and is a reknown Bolivian historian. A centrist, basically right in the middle out of every political position you can come up with, it's like he does not want to upset anyone. One of the few parties that mentions gender equality in its program, declares himself 'respectful' of LGTB people but takes no position as to whether or not they should get more rights (like marriage). No opinion on abortion either. Secularism.
Demócratas: Bolivia dice No
Democrats: Bolivia says No
Tagline: Las Manos Limpias / Bolivia dice No (Clean Hands / Bolivia says No)
Candidate: Óscar Ortiz Antelo (1969), businessman and national senator
Political leaning: Liberalism, federalism
Results: 4.4%
Coming from a well-off eastern Bolivian family, Ortiz has always been in close relationship with the eastern Bolivia business people. Serving an old demand from his home region of Santa Cruz, proposes to devolve powers to the Bolivian departments, true federalism in the future. Religious, pro-business, low taxes, want energetic self-reliance, anti-LGTB, as a senator voted against the Gender Identity bill (which gave rights to trans people), anti-abortion, marriage only between man and woman.
Partido Demócrata-Cristiano (PDC)
Christian-Democratic Party
Tagline: Chi Puede (Chi can [do it])
Candidate: Chi Hyun Chung (1970), university professor, evangelical pastor, born in South Korea
Political leaning: Conservative, Christian traditionalism
Results: 8.6% - big suprise, becomes the country's third political force
Self-defined as a 'Christian capitalist', claims he will rule Bolivia by following the Bible. Decided to run because he saw 'Bolivia becoming communist'. A surprise evangelist in a mostly Catholic country. Supports federalism and self-rule for indigenous peoples. Anti-LGTB, proposes psychiatric therapies for them. Pro small-businesses.
Others:
Felix Patzi (Movimiento Tercer Sistema / Third System Movement), excision of MAS-IPSP. Patzi is an indigenous Aymara. Pro-indigenous rights, extremely sexist (believes violence against women was caused by them getting into the workforce, proposes they should either stay at home or accompany their husbands at their jobs), anti-LGTB, pro-family. Results: 1.1%
Victor Hugo Cárdenas (Unidad Cívica Solidaridad / Civic Union Solidarity), also evangelist, and indigenous Aymara with a long public trajectory. Overall conservative, against LGTB marriage or adoption, anti-abortion. Want to arm women so they can defend themselves against men. Results: 0.5%
Others: 1.1%
Honorary mention:
Partido de Acción Nacionalista - Bolivia (PAN-BOL)
Party of Nationalist Action - Bolivia
And I say honorary because she is polling low, but she is the only woman candidate and has interesting things to say.
Tagline: Pan Para Bolivia (Pan for Bolivia, playing with the word 'pan' - the initials of her party but also 'bread' in Spanish)
Results: 0.7%
Candidate: Ruth Nina Juchani (1972), lawyer and syndicalist, before that she owned a small business and was a taxi driver
Political leaning: Left, social progressivism
The only woman candidate and also of indigenous ancestry. Nina has been involved in politics for over a decade, being a national senator. Against discrimination of LGTB people, proposes a national debate on the issue of adoption. Wants to tackle the issues of violence against women and children living in the streets by creating new ministries dedicated exclusively to that. Pro-abortion. Her priorities: women rights and justice.
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