Bolivia elects president and Evo Morales wants to stay in power for five years

Some 7.3 million Bolivians will go to the polls this Sunday to decide whether President Evo Morales will remain in power for five years or whether the country will elect a new government until 2025, when it will celebrate the 200th anniversary. of its independence.

Morales and the vice-president of the country, Álvaro García Linera, attend the elections in pursuit of a fourth consecutive management, in an application whose legality was questioned by his critics for violating the constitutional limit of two terms and the results of a referendum that in 2016 had denied them reelection.

However, in 2017, the Constitutional Court approved his candidacy, which was approved a year later by the Electoral Tribunal, which recognized him as a valid candidate.

The official duo faces a Fragmented opposition in eight requests, which did not take into account the calls of the citizen platforms opposed to the reelection of Morales to unite to face the current leader with a united front of the opposition.

Of these eight opposing formulas, the candidate with the best chance of taking Morales to a second round is the former president Carlos Mesa, from the Citizen Community Alliance.

The panorama exposed by the polls suggests that Morales would not get the large percentages to which he was accustomed since 2005, year of his first conquest of the presidency, far from his electoral ceiling of just over 64% of the votes obtained. in 2009

The official candidate has chosen to highlight the economic and social achievements during his more than 13 years of government, as well as the stability of the country, when asking for the vote and campaign by shaking the specter of the Argentine crisis .

For its part, Mesa has launched an appeal with his electoral motto "It's too much" especially because of the fatigue of many voters before what they consider abuses of the current president, starting with the fact of not having respected the Constitution which it promulgated in 2009, limiting the mandates to two consecutive mandates.

The country has been in a period of reflection and an "electoral ban" since Thursday, which has not prevented Morales and García Linera from continuing to appear in numerous official acts, delivering work and making announcements and promises of new projects.

This earned critics of the opposition, who also denounced the use of state resources during the campaign.

The ruling party justified the apparitions by saying that the government leadership could not stop.

Activated voters are a total of 7,315,364, including 341,001 Bolivians residing in 33 countriesespecially in Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Spain.

Abroad, they can only elect the President and Vice President, while in Bolivia, they will also vote for the formation of the Legislative Assembly for the period 2020-2025.

Some 20,871 police officers and 11,171 military officers will conduct election security activities throughout the country, whether to keep the scene or accompany the transfer of ballot boxes and minutes.

The Bolivian elections will be observed by more than 200 international delegates entities such as the Organization of American States (OAS), the European Union (EU), the Inter-American Union of Electoral Organizations and the Democracy Observatory of the Parliament of Mercosur.