Bolivians went to the polls on March 7, in regional elections postponed a year because of Covid-19. The governing MAS party, under the leadership of President Luis Arce, won governorships in three of Bolivia’s nine departments, or states. The party is headed to a second round in another four departments. The final results have been delayed because of a cyberattack from outside the country on the Electoral Tribunal’s website on March 9.
Santa Cruz, the country’s most populous department, was the only place where the MAS resoundingly lost a governorship. Luis Fernando Camacho won with 63.8 percent of the vote. Far-right Camacho played a pivotal role in the expulsion of ex-President Evo Morales in November 2019. His erstwhile ally, former ex-interim President Jeanine Áñez, ran for governor in her home department of the Beni in the northeast, coming in third.
Eva Copa, the rogue senator who broke with MAS is the new elected mayor of El Alto, despite the fact that the ex-president accused her of being a "traitor" and supported another candidate. Entrepreneur Luis Fernando Camacho could become governor of Santa Cruz.
Bolivia's leftist ruling party received an electoral setback on Sunday when exit polls showed it had lost the possibility of governing the most populated cities in the country.
By Monica Machicao and Daniel Ramos
LA PAZ (Reuters) - In the Bolivian city of El Alto that clings to vertiginous mountain peaks soaring above political capital La Paz, the country s ruling socialist party faces a reckoning in regional elections to be held on Sunday.
The socialist candidate for mayor, hand picked by party grandee and former President Evo Morales, is far behind in opinion polls. The likely winner: Eva Copa, a former party star - young, female and indigenous - pushed out of the party for being too moderate.
Morales made a triumphant return to Bolivia last year when his Movement for Socialism (MAS) party swept back into power, his close ally and former minister Luis Arce elected as president.
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