Ciao!: Bolivia's municipal elections

Bolivia's municipal elections

10.12.2004

Bolivian municipal elections finally kicked off, w/ ballot design announcements — three, depending on the number of candidates in each of 327 municipalities. The election is important not only because it's the first test of parties' strengths after October 2003 — it's also the first election allowing non-party "citizens' groups" to campaign. (Rhetoric aside, of course, "citizens' groups" are political parties in every sense imaginable.) Still, traditional parties are the groups to watch, since the election will serve as a referendum of sorts on political parties & their relative strength (especially MNR, MIR, and MAS).

I'll follow four key municipal elections: La Paz & El Alto, Cochabamba, and Santa Cruz. These four cities (three metropolitan areas) hold about 50% of the Bolivia's population. Winners in these four cities will be poised for 2007 presidential elections. In the next few days, I'll compile candidate lists in those cities. Interestingly, ~~Felipe Quispe's MIP (Pachakuti Indigenous Movement) won't participate~~ in the 5 December elections. Neither will the PDC (Democratic Christian Party), but it's a minor party w/ little pull.

So far, political parties still dominate. Even in the department of La Paz, where anti-party sentiment is high, the Departmental Electoral Court reports that 603 of 720 candidates (in 75 municipalities) belong to party lists — not citizens' groups.

One interesting note: Roberto de la Cruz, a former dirigente of the COR (the regional workers syndicate from El Alto) at first didn't want to run for mayor of La Paz. That is, until a mob of M-17 (Movement 17 of October) members stormed his office, whipped him, and forced him to accept their nomination. So. Now de la Cruz is running for mayor of La Paz. Marking yet another twist in an interesting political career.

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NOTE: I'm posting here because there seems to be a MySQL error at the Living in Bolivia server. The RSS aggregator still works, so this'll still show up there.

Posted by Miguel at 06:43 PM

Comments

MIP does have candidates in various municipalities including La Paz and Cochabamba.

Percy Fernandez (someone you mentioned earlier) has formed his own citizen´s group.

I agree with you that these groups are basically political parties in disguise.

I doubt that any candidate will get the required 50% + 1 vote, so in essence the mayor will be picked by the councilmembers. There we will go again with the behind the scenes dealmaking. Most likely the former party members will go back with their former party and try to form some sort of coalition, which defeats the purpose of these new groups.

Posted by: eduardo at October 12, 2004 09:55 PM

I'm having a hard time finding out who the candidates are for the different elections. Of course, that should clear up in a day or two (the ballots were only announced today). But on closer inspection, there is a MIP section on the El Alto & La Paz ballots. Though the accopanying stories suggested MIP had decided not to participate. But maybe it was only in specific municipalities, not nation-wide?

As to the question of no candidate winning 50%+1. I'm OK w/ that, since these are list candidates, not individuals. Each party will win a proportional representation, just like at the national level. So coalition governments are to be expected. I can't really think of a better electoral system that would make people happy. Maybe adopting IRV or STV systems?

Posted by: Miguel at October 12, 2004 10:30 PM

There was a list of all 9 departments in today´s print edition of La Razon, including all of the suplentes. I believe MIP is only running in Cochabamba, La Paz, El Alto and Chuquisaca, but in many, if not all, Altiplano municipalities.

Posted by: eduardo at October 13, 2004 07:15 PM