Bolivia postpones its general elections. The Supreme Electoral Court (TSE) announced Thursday, July 23 that the poll scheduled for September 6 was postponed to October 18, due to the increase in the number of cases of coronavirus in this Andean country.

"The final date of the elections brings together better conditions to protect health, facilitate voting abroad and the arrival of international observation missions," said TSE President Salvador Romero. The latter also highlighted medical reports according to which the peak of the pandemic was expected between the end of August and the beginning of September in Bolivia.

According to him, a possible second round would take place on November 29 and the new authorities take office in December. This decision is the "fruit of legal, scientific and political considerations", added the president of the TSE, at a time when Bolivia records more than 64,000 cases of Covid-19, including 2,328 deaths.

Elect a new president

These general elections, which ex-president Evo Morales cannot stand for, aim to elect the head of state, the vice-president as well as 36 senators and 120 deputies. Originally scheduled for May 3, they have been postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Bolivians will therefore be called upon to return to the polls one year after the last elections in October 2019.

In power since 2006, former socialist president Evo Morales then proclaimed himself the winner of this election for a fourth term, but the opposition had cried fraud.

After weeks of demonstrations, released by the police and the army, Evo Morales resigned on November 10 and left Bolivia. Exiled from Argentina, he is under an arrest warrant issued by the Bolivian prosecution. Authorities warned he would be immediately arrested if he returned to the country.

With AFP

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