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Right-Wing Frontrunners Lead as Bolivia Nears Vote With Rising Null Ballots

Widespread voter disillusionment is driving an unusually high number of null ballots

Samuel Doria Medina, Bolivian center-right businessman and presidential candidate for the National Unity party, attends his closing campaign rally, ahead of the August 17 election, in La Paz, Bolivia August 12, 2025. REUTERS/Claudia Morales/ File Photo
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A woman walks past a campaign center for supporters of former President Evo Morales who are in favor or a null vote in the upcoming presidential election in El Alto, Bolivia, Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

Overview

  • Samuel Doria Medina and Jorge 'Tuto' Quiroga each poll at roughly 20 percent support days before the August 17 election, while undecided voters and planned null ballots outnumber any candidate’s backing.
  • The ruling Movimiento al Socialismo party is fractured by a split between President Luis Arce and former leader Evo Morales, leaving its candidates stuck in single digits.
  • Evo Morales, disqualified from the race, is directing a high-profile null-vote campaign from Chapare that risks depressing turnout and challenging the election’s credibility.
  • Bolivia’s worst economic crisis in decades—marked by soaring inflation, plummeting gas exports and acute fuel and dollar shortages—drives the campaign’s focus on market-oriented reforms.
  • Officials have deployed photographic tally-sheet processes and direct transmission under EU and OAS oversight to shore up transparency in a vote that could reshape lithium policy and foreign relations.