According to the exit polls Luis Arce would have won the presidential elections in Bolivia in the first round with 52.4 percent of the votes. Arce was the candidate of the Movement for Socialism (MAS), the political party of former president Evo Morales, currently in exile, and under Morales he had been finance minister. Arce he was favored in the polls, but he would have won with an unexpected gap, more than twenty points over the centrist candidate, Carlos Mesa, who, according to the exit polls, would have won 31.5 percent.
Very grateful for the support and trust of the Bolivian people. We recover democracy and we will regain stability and social peace. United, with dignity and sovereignty #We will move forward pic.twitter.com/vFO9Mr1o44
– Luis Arce Catacora (Lucho Arce) (@LuchoXBolivia) October 19, 2020
The official results could only arrive in a few days. At 7, Italian time, only 6 percent of the vote count had been completed, but both Mesa and interim president Jeanine Anez, who had withdrawn his candidacy on 18 September, recognized Arce’s victory. On Twitter Arce wrote that in Bolivia democracy has been “regained”. The election had been postponed twice due to the coronavirus.
We still do not have an official count, but from the data we have, Mr. Arce and Mr. Choquehuanca have won the election. I congratulate the winners and ask them to govern thinking of Bolivia and democracy.
— Jeanine Añez Chavez (@JeanineAnez) October 19, 2020
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