Rodrigo Paz wins the presidential elections in Bolivia and ends two decades of left-wing rule

The centrist opposition senator Rodrigo Paz Pereira won the second round this Sunday with the 54.57% of the votesaccording to preliminary information released by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) of Bolivia with just over 97% of the minutes processed.

Paz obtained that percentage compared to a 45.43% of former conservative president Jorge Tuto Quiroga (2001-2002), according to data from the Preliminary Results Transmission System (Sirepre) offered on Sunday night by the TSE, with 97.68% of the minutes computed.

Los valid votes reach 94.56%, the whites 0.75% and the nulls 4.69%, according to preliminary information that is not the official count, although the acting president of the TSE, Óscar Hassenteufel, indicated that these results show “a trend” that “seems to be irreversible.”

According to Hassenteufel, The level of citizen participation in the second round was between 85 and 89%a fact that will be confirmed “once the official count is concluded.”

The member assessed that Sirepre, “which already gave very good results in the first round” held on August 17, “has also effectively fulfilled its function this Sunday.”

He confirmed that the voting day was “calm”, it passed “without major incidents” and allowed all citizens to exercise their right to vote.

Paz and Quiroga were the two candidates with the most votes in the August general elections, in which The national Parliament was also renewed for the next five-year period, although none obtained enough percentage to be declared the winner in the first round.

That is why this Sunday Bolivians returned to the polls to elect their president and vice president for the first time in their history in a second round, a mechanism established in the Constitution in force since 2009.

Paz is a candidate for the Christian Democratic Party (PDC) along with the former police officer Edman Lara and Quiroga represents the Libre alliance together with the technological entrepreneur Juan Pablo Velasco.

The winner will be sworn in as the country’s new president on next November 8which will also mean the end of the 20 years of the Governments of the leftist Movement towards Socialism (MAS).