Overview

• Almost eight million Bolivians are set to vote on August 17 in an election that could end the Movement Towards Socialism party’s two-decade hold on power.
• Bolivia is experiencing a severe economic crisis marked by plunging gas exports, 40-year-high inflation and acute shortages of dollars and fuel.
• Evo Morales, barred from the ballot on criminal charges he denies, remains holed up in his Chapare stronghold and is urging supporters to cast spoiled ‘Nulo’ ballots as a protest tactic.
• Opinion polls put center-right businessman Samuel Doria Medina and former president Jorge 'Tuto' Quiroga neck-and-neck at around 20 percent each, while MAS contenders trail in the single digits.
• Under Bolivian law spoiled and blank ballots are excluded from the official count, but authorities warn that a surge in Nulo votes or Morales-led protests could undermine the election’s legitimacy and spark instability.