Bolivia returns to the polls to elect nine gov …

Just four months after Luis Arce’s presidential inauguration, more than seven million Bolivians will return to the polls this Sunday to elect the governors, the representatives in the assemblies of the nine departments of the country, the mayors and the councilors in 336 communes. The brief electoral campaign was marked by disqualifications and legal proceedings against some right-wing candidates, who run for office without clear leadership. But he also made visible certain fractures within the Movement for Socialism (MAS), in particular after the departure of Eva Copa, former president of the Senate.

“After winning the presidential competition, the MAS engaged in a very strong conflict which opened the field to the ultra-reactionary factions which managed to survive the coup in Cochabamba and Santa Cruz., explained in dialogue with Page 12 the political scientist Gabriel Villalba. The truth is that, faced with a scenario that is still uncertain, everyone has reason to rejoice: the opposition seizes the ballot boxes to anticipate a victory in the main cities of the country, while masismo will develop in the municipalities and remains the only party to have representation at the national level.

MAS candidate for governor of La Paz, Franklin Flores, ranks first with just over 20% of voting intentions. according to the few surveys carried out. However, he would be followed very closely by Jallalla Group candidate Santos Quispe, son of the recently deceased Felipe “El Mallku” Quispe, who was a candidate and favorite to remain as governor. In third place appears Rafael “Tata” Quispe, front candidate For the common good – We are people.

Tata Quispe was an official in Jeanine Áñez’s de facto government and her candidacy was on hold until the last moment due to a recent court ruling for political harassment. against Felipa Huanca, former official of the Indigenous Fund. Santos Quispe tries to keep the great wealth of voices his late father had, but so far he couldn’t. For his part, the former deputy Franklin flores He claims to be the only one to have debated his candidacy with the basics: he even said it was “more difficult to be a MAS candidate than to win an election”.

In Santa Cruz, Luis Fernando Camacho would comfortably in the first place surpassing 40% of the voting intentions, far from the MAS candidate, Mario Cronenbold. Camacho was actively involved in the military and police coup that led to the coup against Evo Morales in November 2019 and this is one of the main cards of the right in these elections with the de facto ex-president, Jeanine Áñez, who will go for the governorate of Beni with chances of winning.

Finally among the main departments of the country, in Cochabamba, the MAS would have an easier time. Humberto Sánchez, former mayor of Sacaba who resigned a few days before the massacre, would triumph in the first round against Henry Paredes of the Súmate movement.

At the level of mayors, the defeat of the MAS would be important, although in line with what the latest subnational elections reflect. In Santa Cruz, Gary Áñez, candidate of the citizen community, is ranked first which would exceed 30% of the votes, leaving aside and third to the MAS candidate, the former senator Adriana salvatierra, perhaps one of the most visible faces of the party.

In the city of Cochabamba, the former captain of the armed forces, Manfred Reyes Villa, leads the polls with more than 50% of the vote. Villa Reyes has a final conviction for the crime of breach of obligations as a public official in a case to buy six luxury trucks in 2006 for the prefecture of Cochabamba, his candidacy was therefore questioned until the last minute. In addition It is suspected that “he designed the coup against Evo Morales from the consolidation of passive police and military service from his residence in the United States,” Villalba recalled..

The case of the city of La Paz is symptomatic of MAS’s mistrust of the ballot box. In a first poll published on January 24, the masista candidate César Dockweiler, director of the public cable car company, won until his resignation after the 2019 coup. But two weeks later, who was second , Iván Arias, Minister of Public Works during the De facto government of Jeanine Áñez dramatically increased from 20% to 50% of voting intention and snatched the first place.

“I never believed in polls, especially those of (the company) Ciesmori. Last year he made us believe there would be a second round and that MAS was going to lose. Which second round? Us? won with over 55 percent. “said former president Evo Morales, who was at the forefront of the Masismo campaign, on Kawsachun Coca radio. “I think that at the level of governorates like La Paz and Cochabamba, the polls are more loaded at the urban level, so we will have to wait”, raised in this regard the political scientist Marcelo Arequipa.

During the campaign for these sub-national elections, many eyes were on the battle for the mayor of El Alto. MAS candidate Zacarías Maquera would lose dramatically to Eva Copa, former Senate president and now Jallalla group candidate. The Copa candidacy revealed internal masism. The ruling party nominated her to challenge that intention, but critics subsequently rained for her controversial role during Áñez’s transitional government. The MAS then decided to decline its candidacy.

Villalba distinguished two moments in the recent trajectory of Copa. “First of all, a peripheral Cup which manages to position itself by aligning itself with the interests of the coup d’etat”, raised the political analyst. So there is a second moment with a “much more mature and empowered Cup that manages to garner political income from her position as President in the Senate, bonding with the city of El Alto”.

“The case of Eva Copa shows the difficulty that exists in the MAS, rather the very strong internal competition that exists in the party”, for his part, he warned Arequipa, who clarified that competition is endowed with “a positive meaning, because all political organizations must go through this climate of tension“.

The opposition does not seem to have done much to capitalize on this internal friction in MAS and organize itself according to a common agenda. “I believe that today the political center is emptied because the Comunidad Ciudadana and Carlos Mesa have done nothing to revitalize it. There are certainly right-wing territorial leaders who will want to be the alternative to socialism, like Camacho and Reyes Villa. There will be a change of actors, but there will be no renewal of leadership, that is to say there is no political project“he assured Arequipa.

In this context It remains to be seen what will be the future of the indigenous group Jallalla, which for the moment is only growing in La Paz with Eva Copa as the flag. “He became a Frankenstein with recycled parts of the masismo, “Villalba raised.”Jallalla is a movement almost analogous to that of Pachakutik in EcuadorJallalla being much more improvised and regional, and at the same time with a fairly orthodox right-wing Indianism and recalcitrant against the socialist and progressive projects of the 21st century, ”added the director of the Center for Our American Studies in Bolivia.