Bolivians were headed for an unprecedented runoff presidential election following a vote Sunday in which a dark horse centrist, Sen. Rodrigo Paz, drew more votes than the right-wing front-runners, although not enough to secure an outright victory, according to early results.
Paz, a former mayor who has sought to soften the edges of the opposition’s push for tough austerity to rescue Bolivia from economic collapse, will face off on Oct. 19 against right-wing former President Jorge “Tuto” Quiroga, who finished second.
With over 91% of the ballots counted Sunday, Paz received 32.8% of the votes cast. Quiroga secured 26.4%. Candidates needed to surpass 50%, or 40% with a 10-point margin of victory, to avoid a runoff.
The results delivered a major blow to the Andean nation’s Movement Toward Socialism, or MAS, party after almost 20 years of dominance. The party’s founder, charismatic ex-President Evo Morales, rose to power as part of the “pink tide” of leftist leaders that swept into office across Latin America during the commodities boom of the early 2000s.
The official MAS candidate, Eduardo del Castillo, finished sixth with just 3.2% of the vote. The other leftist candidate who ran for a faction of the now-splintered party, 36-year-old Senate president Andrinico Rodriguez, captured just 8% of the vote.
