2020 Bolivian general election

2020 Bolivian general election

March or April 2020

Incumbent President Jeanine Añez MDS

Snap general elections are to be held in Bolivia in March or April 2020, after the resignation of President Evo Morales and all of his constitutional successors in the aftermath of the events following the disputed election in October 2019.

Background

Main articles: 2016 Bolivian constitutional referendum, 2019 Bolivian protests, and 2019 Bolivian political crisis

On 10 November 2019, the President of Bolivia since 2006, Evo Morales, was asked by the military commander General Williams Kaliman to resign. He did so, and later sought asylum in Mexico, in a series of events characterized by Morales and his allies as a coup. Shortly thereafter, all of his constitutionally-designated successors also proceeded to resign, namely Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera, President of the Senate Adriana Salvatierra and President of the Chamber of Deputies Víctor Borda. Furthermore, the First Vice President of the Senate, Rubén Medinaceli, also resigned. This left Jeanine Añez, the Second Vice President of the Senate, as the highest-ranking official still in office and prompted her to announce that she would be willing to ascend to the presidency on an interim basis in order to call for new elections. Thus, on 12 November 2019 Añez took temporary charge of the Senate of Bolivia, thereby formally placing herself in the line of succession as acting President of the Senate, and on this basis proceeded to declare herself the Constitutional President of the country. Her accession to office was formally legitimized by a decision of the Plurinational Constitutional Tribunal later the same day, which stated that she had lawfully assumed office ipso facto, in accordance with the precedent laid out by Constitutional Declaration 0003/01 of 31 July 2001.

On 20 November, Evo Morales offered to not run as a presidential candidate if he was allowed to return to Bolivia and conclude his term.

The same day, the interim government presented a bill that aimed to forge a path to new elections. The two chambers congress were expected to debate the bill which would annul the 20 October election and appoint a new electoral board within 15 days of its passage, paving the way for a new vote. The bill, drafted jointly by MAS and anti-Morales legislators, was approved on 23 November; it also prohibited Morales from participating in the fresh election. In exchange, Áñez's government agreed to withdraw the armed forces from all protest areas (although some servicemen were still permitted to stay at some state companies to "prevent vandalism"), revoke her decree which granted the army immunity from criminal prosecution, release arrested pro-Morales protesters, protect lawmakers and social leaders from attacks and provide compensation for the families of those killed during the crisis. She approved the bill shortly thereafter.

Electoral system

The President of Bolivia is elected using a modified two-round system: a candidate is declared the winner if they receive more than 50% of the vote, or over 40% of the vote and are 10 percentage points ahead of their closest rival. If neither condition is met, a run-off election is held between the two top candidates.

Polling

Poll source	Date(s) administered	Andrónico Rodríguez	Carlos Mesa	Luis F. Camacho	Marco Pumari	Chi Hyun Chung	Félix Patzi	Jorge Quiroga	Óscar Ortiz Antelo	Samuel Doria Medina	Johnny Fernández	Jeanine Áñez	Other	Would not vote	Undecided
Mercados y Muestras SRL	December 2019	23%	21%	13%	10%	9%	-	2%	-	-	-	-	-	14%	8%
Captura Consulting	5-15 December 2019	18.4%	11.9%	12.8%	-	8.5%	2.8%	1.8%	3.7%	2.1%	1.0%	7.5%	2.6%	5.1%	21.8%
Mercados y Muestras SRL	November 2019	16%	14%	16%	16%	10%	-	-	-	-	-	-	8%	8%	12%