Bolivia: Elections in the Time of Evo | North American Congress on Latin America
Recent
polls put Morales 40 percentage points ahead of his closest rival,
cement magnate Samuel Doria Medina from the eastern lowlands department
of Santa Cruz. The other contenders—former conservative president Jorge
“Tuto” Quiroga, center-left ex-La Paz mayor Juan del Granado, and
lowlands indigenous leader Fernando Vargas—trail considerably behind.
Still, what’s at stake in this election is not just the opportunity for
a decisive defeat of the right, but whether Morales and the MAS party
that emerges from the electoral process will be politically capable of
deepening what Bolivians call their “process of change.”
