: The Far-Left Wins Back Power in Bolivia. What Does That Mean for the Country’s Future? #WorldNEWS Almost a year after Bolivian president Evo Morales fled his country amid unrest over his perceived

The Far-Left Wins Back Power in Bolivia. What Does That Mean for the Country’s Future? #WorldNEWS
Almost a year after Bolivian president Evo Morales fled his country amid unrest over his perceived attempt to steal a fourth term in office, his party is set to return to power, claiming a decisive victory in a high-stakes presidential election and launching a new era for the country’s far left.
Movement for Socialism’s new leader Luis Arce, a 57-year-old former economy minister, won 52. 4% of the vote, according to a private poll for two broadcasters. The official result is expected to take several days to emerge, but the projections put Arce well ahead of the centrist former president Carlos Mesa, on 31. 5%. Arce, whose technocratic style sets him apart from Morales’ populist touch, needed 50%, or a ten point lead over the second place candidate, to win without a second round.

The run up to the election has been tense in Bolivia. The rightwing-led interim government, which took power after Morales’ ouster, delayed the vote twice, citing the COVID-19 pandemic. The delays, combined with provocative changes to Bolivia’s foreign policy and secular state procedures, and interim president Jeanine Añez’s decision to run for the presidency, had stoked fears that the interim government was making a power grab of its own. But Añez congratulated Arce on Monday. “I ask the winners to govern thinking of Bolivia and democracy,” she said on Twitter.
The result heralds a more stable end to a chaotic year in Bolivia, says Christopher Sabatini, a senior researcher fellow for Latin America at Chatham House and founder of Americas Quarterly. “This is a sign that Bolivia’s democracy is strong,” he says. “The result shows that MAS is not a personal machine [for Morales]. It speaks to the fact that Bolivia’s people make choices not necessarily based on leaders, but on pragmatic lines. ”
Here’s what to know about Bolivia’s election results.
Who is Evo Morales and why did he leave Bolivia last year?
A former labor union leader and the first president to belong to Bolivia’s large Indigenous population, Morales spent a record 13 and a half years in power and built up huge popularity, presiding over strong economic growth, cuts to poverty and the expansion of Indigenous rights. But when he asked voters to give him the right to amend the constitution to allow him to run for a fourth term at a referendum in 2016, 51% said no.
Morales effectively ignored that vote, and in October 2019 he ran for re-election anyway. During the vote count, Morales appeared to be headed into a second round run-off with centrist Mesa. But then electoral authorities suspended updates for 24 hours.