Bolivia – the Election Report

Presidential candidate for the MAS party (Movement for Socialism), Luis Arce, leaves the Supreme Electoral Court in La Paz, Bolivia, after officially registering as a candidate on February 3, 2020. Photo credit: Radoslaw Czajkowski / Shutterstock.com

By Leni Villagomez Reeves
Co-chair, Cuba and the Bolivarian Alliance Committee

November 2020

On October 18, 2020, Bolivia went to the polls and it was a landslide for the MAS party (Movimiento Al Socialismo)! Workers, many of them indigenous, protested to force this democratic election, and they resisted intimidation and violence carried out by the right wing.

Background

October 2019 – Evo Morales (of the Movimiento Al Socialismo party) was elected president of Bolivia with a more than 10% lead over the next closest candidate. On November 8, a coup backed by the US and its puppet the Organization of American States (OAS) overthrew the Morales government. Jeanine Añez, whose party got 4% of the votes, self-declared herself president, and installed a right-wing white government.

This government repressed dissent violently. They promised to hold elections but repeatedly postponed them, until the workers and campesinos, most of them with some affiliation to one of the indigenous peoples of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, went on strike and set up roadblocks, paralyzing the country and forcing the elections.

Election 2020

October 18 2020 – Bolivia goes to the polls. There are candidates from five major parties or alliances of parties: Movement toward Socialism MAS, Comunidad Ciudadana (alliance),  Creemos (alliance), Partido de Acción Nacional, Frente Para la Victoria. 

It was a MAS landslide, with more than 54% of the votes. Here are the election results:

And it was not just the presidency. Bolivia has a bicameral system (remember sixth-grade civics?) with a 130-member Camera de Diputados and a 36-member Senate. MAS candidates picked up additional seats for a total of 73 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 21 in the Senate.  

Furthermore, the new Senate will contain a majority of female senators, with a proportion of 20 women and 16 men.

Okay, I’m tired of statistics and perhaps you are also. Why is this extremely gratifying and great?

Indigenous Peoples, Unafraid and Undefeated

The Bolivian people, led by the indigenous population, made it very clear what government they want. They had done so in the previous election, as well, but their will was overthrown by the Bolivian Right in a coup, backed by the military, and backed by the usual sUSspects including the Organization of American States.

This startlingly white coup government disrespected and oppressed the indigenous peoples of Bolivia – and 44% of census respondents in Bolivia indicated feeling part of some indigenous group, predominantly Quechua or Aymara – in real and symbolic ways. The indigenous peoples of Bolivia made this election happen, and then they made it their victory!

No Doubts about This Election

This election, like the last one, was conducted under excruciatingly meticulous international observation. Indeed, if US elections were held to the same standard, we can all think of a number of elections that would have been found to be illegitimate. Of course, not all international observers are created equal for the coup government. A delegation of observers from Argentina invited by the Plurinational Legislative Assembly had one of the observers, a legislator, detained at the airport. In addition to Fagioli’s detainment, other members of the Argentine delegation, including other lawmakers, were also mistreated by Bolivian security forces. But all observers, including the OAS, have agreed that this election had no irregularities. Naturally, the Right is trying to sing the old “flawed election” song, but this time without any accompaniment.

The People Resisted Intimidation and Violence

The Right/White coup government wasn’t expecting this. They had the army, the police, paramilitary forces, and mobs of right-wing goons, and they thought they had enough control and intimidation to control the polls.

Evo Morales intended to run for senator from Cochambamba, but was disqualified. As an asylum-seeker living outside Bolivia, the Áñez government had issued a warrant for his arrest.  Brenda Segovia, a MAS candidate for parliament running in the Santa Cruz area, a stronghold of the right and their paramilitaries, was arrested in mid-October after her headquarters were attacked and burned by a mob of 80 armed men on October 6. Wait, you ask – her offices were attacked by a right-wing mob, and then she was arrested? Yes, for “inciting to violence.” No one else has been arrested or charged in the attack. This attack was one of more than 50 similar incidents. The paramilitary assaults and weaponizing the legal system is typical of the right wing, and not only in Bolivia.

David Choquehuanca Led the Way

You can tell by his name that David Choquehuanca’s ancestors didn’t arrive with the Spanish conquest. He is Aymara, and an activist in the Aymara campesino, indigenous, and rural worker movement. He has been one of Evo’s advisors since even before Morales’s election to the presidency and served as Foreign Minister from 2006 until the coup.

Choquehuanca is a pachamamista — an advocate for the Earth and for Indigenous ways, rather than internationalist ways of development. He was proposed as the MAS presidential candidate, but insisted that Luis “Lucho” Arce be the presidential candidate, in hopes of picking up broad support from the middle class who were disillusioned with the coup government and their supporters. It worked.

Christian Fundamentalists Lost Support

Fernando Camacho was crying as he saw his 14% vote percentage. This is the leader of the “burn the Whiphala, slam down the Bible on the Bolivian flag” faction in Bolivia. People didn’t get fooled by this phony Christian this time. Of course, he has already started calling for “civic mobilization” against the election and for his followers – and business interests – to “put up a fight.” But the racist right-wing call disguised as religion is not pulling the crowds he expected.

What Happens Next?

This is a great question, and we all need to be following the situation in Bolivia. Will the current government, illegitimately in power after negating the past election, respect this one? They don’t have the people but they have the guns. The people of Bolivia are already alert and ready to defend their victory. The international community of solidarity needs to be ready to do the same.