Bolivian Congress Prepares to Choose the Country's Next President

  
After no single candidate won the necessary number of votes to declare victory in the June 30 elections, Bolivia's Congress was charged with naming the country's next president. On August 3, legislators will decide who will lead Bolivia for the next five years.

Bolivia's constitution does not allow for runoff elections. If no candidate wins one vote more than 50% of the ballots, the new president is chosen by a majority vote among the 157 members of the Bolivian Congress. This is the fifth time that lawmakers have had to step in and fill this role.

According to observers, neither of the two leading candidates, former president Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada or indigenous union leader Evo Morales, can muster a majority of the congressional votes. Both have been building coalitions to gain the support they need to take office on August 6.

Official figures showed Sánchez de Lozada, of the centrist Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario (MNR), with 22.46% of the June vote. Morales followed with 20.94%, only 721 votes ahead of retired military official Manfred Reyes Villa.

The biggest news was the strong showing by Morales, the self-described "leader of the coca growers and the first Indian to be considered for president by the Bolivian Congress." Most analysts believe that Sánchez de Lozada will win the congressional vote, but it will be hard to ignore Morales's political strength. Thirty labor, peasant and socialist leaders allied with his movement gained congressional seats in the June 30 elections.

Morales's popularity is attributed to his outspoken criticism of Bolivia's traditional parties. He got an unexpected boost from the controversial declarations of US Ambassador Manuel Rocha, who asked Bolivians not to support his campaign. Morales has vowed to industrialize coca production, limit presidential powers and eliminate the traditional party system. Otto Reich, the US assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, has also warned that Bolivia risks losing US aid if it elects a president committed to rolling back coca eradication efforts.

It is up to the Bolivian Congress to reach a consensus, representing the will of their countrymen and reaffirming Bolivia's commitment to the democratic process.