2005 Bolivian general election
| |||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||
Results by province | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
Bolivia portal |
General elections were held in
Simultaneously voters elected prefects, the highest executive office in each of Bolivia's nine departments. This was the first time the office had been chosen at the ballot box. Subsequently, departmental elections were held separately from national elections, with the next one held in April 2010.
Background
In the early 2000s there were high levels of political instability across the country, including five presidents in four years. Much of the instability dates back to the economic reforms otherwise known as "shock therapy" implemented by President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada whereby many formerly public utilities were privatized.
These reforms ultimately led to the
In his year in office, Mesa held a national
In May 2005 the
In June 2005 the protests ultimately led to Mesa's resignation. Supreme Court Chief Justice
Viewed as an apolitical figure, Rodríguez was welcomed by protesters and called for the presidential elections slated to take place in 2007 to be brought forward to December 2005.
Electoral system
Voters had two ballots: a national-level ballot to elect the president and the nationally elected members of Congress, and one for members of Congress elected in single-member constituencies in the Chamber of Deputies. Senators and deputies were returned on a departmental basis; senators were elected on a majoritarian basis, with the first-place party receiving two and the second-place party one, while deputies were elected on a mixed-member basis, with district deputies joining list deputies awarded by compensatory proportional representation. However, there was no national distribution of seats.
Voting was compulsory for all Bolivians over the age of 18, but Bolivians living abroad were not able to take part.
Results
Samuel Jorge Doria Medina Auza 224,090 | 7.80 | 8 | New | 1 | New | | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Revolutionary Nationalist Movement | Michiaki Nagatani Morishita | 185,859 | 6.47 | 7 | – | 1 | – | |||||||
Pachakuti Indigenous Movement | Felipe Quispe | 61,948 | 2.16 | 0 | –6 | 0 | 0 | |||||||
New Republican Force | Gildo Angulo Cabrera | 19,667 | 0.68 | 0 | –25 | 0 | –2 | |||||||
Agrarian Patriotic Front | Eliceo Rodríguez Pari | 8,737 | 0.30 | 0 | New | 0 | New | |||||||
Social Union of the Workers of Bolivia | Néstor García Rojas | 7,381 | 0.26 | 0 | New | 0 | New | |||||||
Total | 2,873,801 | 100.00 | 130 | 0 | 27 | 0 | ||||||||
Valid votes | 2,873,801 | 92.63 | ||||||||||||
Invalid/blank votes | 228,616 | 7.37 | ||||||||||||
Total votes | 3,102,417 | 100.00 | ||||||||||||
Registered voters/turnout | 3,671,152 | 84.51 | ||||||||||||
Source: IFES, IFES |
Aftermath
Morales claimed his victory marked Bolivia's first election of an indigenous head of state, but this claim generated controversy,[1] due to the number of mestizo presidents who came before him,[2] and was challenged publicly by such figures as Mario Vargas Llosa,[3] who accused Morales of fomenting racial divisions in an increasingly mestizo Latin America.
References
- ^ "¿Evo indígena o mestizo?". Bolpress. 2006-01-01. Archived from the original on 2007-06-08. Retrieved 2007-07-23.
- ^ Mesa, José, Gisbert, Teresa, Mesa Gisbert, Carlos D. Historia de Bolivia: Segunda Edición corregida y actualizada. Editorial Gisbert. La Paz, 1998.
- ^ "Vargas Llosa: "un nuevo racismo"". BBC Mundo. 2006-01-21.
External links
- National Electoral Court of Bolivia (in Spanish) Archived 2008-12-01 at the Wayback Machine
- BBC "Crucial Choice for Bolivian Voters"
- BBC "Q&A: Bolivian Elections"
- CBC "Left-wing candidate favoured to win Bolivian election"
- NPR's Weekend Edition: "Bolivians Vote for President"
- NPR's All Things Considered "Bolivia Prepares for Presidential Election"
- MAS Official Campaign Site