Presidential election in Bolivia: opposition calls for voting against Mas, Evo Morales' party
Audio 02:28
Campaign closing parade in Santa Cruz by Luis Fernando Camacho, the third man in the general elections in Bolivia.
RFI / Oriane Verdier
By: Oriane Verdier Follow
6 min
Bolivians will vote on Sunday to elect their president as well as their deputies, a year after the last elections marred by fraud and which led to major protests against the re-elected former president Evo Morales forced into exile.
Today, the two main opposition candidates are calling for votes against his party, the MAS, a movement towards socialism.
The strategy is to mobilize against former president Evo Morales.
Report from our special correspondent in Santa Cruz, Bolivia.
Publicity
In the central square of Santa Cruz, Manuel is seated on a bench, staring into space.
On Sunday's vote, the youngster appears to be just as lost.
“
I won't be able to tell you who I'm going to vote for.
The former MAS government claims it obeyed the laws, but this is not true.
I support another party that of Chi, it is the one that convinces me.
But candidate Carlos Mesa is the one who has the most support.
He is the only option at the moment to beat the MAS.
"
The second candidate in the polls, Carlos Mesa, calls on voters to vote useful.
Vote for him in rejection of the MAS.
But there is still a third option.
The courageous vote called by Creemos, the party of Luis Fernando Camacho, the third candidate of the campaign.
More conservative and more at odds with MAS than Carlos Mesa.
Street vendor Jose has decided: his vote will go to Camacho.
“
I'm here for Camacho, I want Camacho to be president.
We want change.
MAS ruled us for 14 years and then Mesa was already president and he resigned.
Those who resign are cowards.
He should have stayed until the end.
So today we want a political renewal and that is what these young people represent.
This is the courageous vote.
"
Despite everything, the MAS candidate of Evo Morales remains at the top of the polls in the face of the opposition's inability to unite, explains political scientist Jose Luis Andia.
“
They started from the principle that the MAS could not have more than 20-25% of the votes.
If this had been true, there was no problem for the opposition to let the MAS win the first round, so that the forces then unite around the second candidate in the second round and finally form a coalition government.
But the Movement towards Socialism seems to be able to have more than 20%, they even think of reaching 40% and thus winning the elections in the first round.
So that changes the strategy.
For example, I have friends who are to death against the MAS and who do not like Carlos Mesa either.
But they're about my age, they have businesses.
We are just emerging from a political crisis and a health crisis which has ended the economy down.
So these people need some stability and that's what they're going to prioritize by voting useful for Mesa, that's a practical vote.
"
This Sunday the Bolivians will also elect their deputies and senators.
It remains very uncertain whether the president elected in the first or second round wins a strong majority in the National Assembly.
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