{"id":55916,"date":"2026-04-04T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/?p=55916"},"modified":"2026-04-05T09:58:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T12:58:14","slug":"subnational-election-in-bolivia-the-new-political-reality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/subnational-election-in-bolivia-the-new-political-reality\/","title":{"rendered":"Subnational election in Bolivia: The new political reality"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On Sunday, March 22, Bolivia went to the polls to elect authorities for 9 governorships and departmental legislative assemblies, as well as 335 mayoralties and municipal councils. These were the first elections after two decades of hegemony by the Movement Toward Socialism (MAS), which ended with the 2025 presidential election. That election not only marked political alternation and the collapse of the MAS apparatus, but also dismantled the political and party system organized around the rivalry between MAS and the opposition, represented by a galaxy of organizations and leaders, both national and local.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This new political reality, stripped of the former organizing axis constituted by the struggle between MAS and its adversaries, was clearly expressed in the subnational election, with five main effects and consequences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

First, the interpretation of subnational election results through a national lens disappeared. Until 2021, the data were read as advances, setbacks, or slowdowns of the MAS government and, conversely, of the opposition; each gubernatorial or mayoral result was linked to the national framework. In 2026, politics became local: departmental or municipal figures were explained based on regional contexts, with few possibilities of assigning them a broader meaning that would facilitate analysis beyond their specific scope. The absence of MAS was not filled by the new ruling party led by President Rodrigo Paz. Although there was an official party label, Patria, competing in several arenas, the government stayed on the sidelines of the contest, and the campaign was never nationalized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next, the political offer fragmented. Previously, the presence of MAS on the ballot concentrated an entire side of the political spectrum. At the same time, given the scale of its rival, opposition forces sought to regroup in order to remain competitive. The offer dispersed, and the number of candidacies increased (from around 14,000 to approximately 18,000).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A multitude of local organizations, along with a few national ones, attempted to fill the vacuum left by MAS\u2014especially since, except Cochabamba, Evo Morales did not rally his supporters behind any ad hoc party label. Within the ranks of the former opposition, the pressure to coordinate efforts against a major adversary disappeared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Third, voters faced the challenge of navigating the ballot without the convenient shortcuts provided by prior partisan polarization. In simplified terms, until 2021, voters aligned with MAS would mark that organization\u2019s candidate with few reservations, although in subnational elections MAS did not reach the same percentages as in presidential races, since ideologically similar movements sought to gain power on their own. Opponents acted in a similar way, but tended to rally behind the strongest candidate capable of confronting MAS, following a logic of \u201cstrategic voting.\u201d In 2026, the electorate had to choose based on other parameters (personal affinity, ideological alignment, programmatic conviction, etc.), which were decidedly less cohesive than the previous ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Linked to the previous point, the vote fragmented. Indeed, the emergence of new considerations when voting\u2014less tied to polarization\u2014scattered preferences across the political spectrum. Until 2021, contests were commonly framed as duels, even if asymmetrical, between an opposition representative and a MAS candidate. In 2026, a record number of runoffs for governorships was reached (in six of nine departments, compared to four in 2021). Likewise, winners tended to obtain low percentages, to the point that several capital city mayoralties were won with less than 25%, even below 20%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, in this election, the ties between the national party system\u2014represented in the Assembly\u2014and local organizations were severed. With some exceptions, the national parties that received the most votes in 2025 obtained low percentages and showed little municipal presence. Conversely, citizen groupings with municipal or departmental reach, only loosely connected to national dynamics, emerged victorious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bolivia thus enters a new political phase, and given that the subnational election is the last electoral contest before the 2030 presidential and legislative elections, the political system will not have opportunities to readjust before that major event.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With a dispersed electoral map and no dominant political axis, the elections revealed a more fragmented, territorialized dynamic that is difficult to frame within traditional national-level interpretations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":425,"featured_media":55890,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17155,16840],"tags":[15635],"gps":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-55916","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-elecciones-subnacionales-en","8":"category-bolivia-en","9":"tag-debates"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/425"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55916"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55916\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55917,"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55916\/revisions\/55917"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55916"},{"taxonomy":"gps","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/gps?post=55916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}