A fruit vendor waits for customers in La Paz, Bolivia, Aug. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Juan Karita, File)2025-08-17T04:05:57Z LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) Bolivians headed to the polls on Sunday to vote in presidential and congressional elections that could spell the end of the Andean nations long-dominant leftist party and see a right-wing government elected for the first time in over two decades.The election on Sunday is one of the most consequential for Bolivia in recent times and one of the most unpredictable.Even at this late stage, a remarkable 30% or so of voters remain undecided. Polls show the two leading right-wing candidates, multimillionaire business owner Samuel Doria Medina and former President Jorge Fernando Tuto Quiroga, locked in a virtual dead heat. Many undecided votersBut a right-wing victory isnt assured. Many longtime voters for the governing Movement Toward Socialism, or MAS, party, now shattered by infighting, live in rural areas and tend to be undercounted in polling.With the nations worst economic crisis in four decades leaving Bolivians waiting for hours in fuel lines, struggling to find subsidized bread and squeezed by double-digit inflation, the opposition candidates are billing the race as a chance to alter the countrys destiny.I have rarely, if ever, seen a situational tinderbox with as many sparks ready to ignite, Daniel Lansberg-Rodriguez, founding partner of Aurora Macro Strategies, a New York-based advisory firm, writes in a memo. Breaking the MAS partys monopoly on political power, he adds, pushes the country into uncharted political waters amid rising polarization, severe economic fragility and a widening ruralurban divide. Bolivia could follow rightward trendThe outcome will determine whether Bolivia a nation of about 12 million people with the largest lithium reserves on Earth and crucial deposits of rare earth minerals follows a growing trend in Latin America, where right-wing leaders like Argentinas libertarian Javier Milei, Ecuadors strongman Daniel Noboa and El Salvadors conservative populist Nayib Bukele have surged in popularity.A right-wing government in Bolivia could trigger a major geopolitical realignment for a country now allied with Venezuelas socialist-inspired government and world powers such as China, Russia and Iran. Conservative candidates vow to restore US relationsDoria Medina and Quiroga have praised the Trump administration and vowed to restore ties with the United States ruptured in 2008 when charismatic, long-serving former President Evo Morales expelled the American ambassador. The right-wing front-runners also have expressed interest in doing business with Israel, which has no diplomatic relations with Bolivia, and called for foreign private companies to invest in the country and develop its rich natural resources. After storming to office in 2006 at the start of the commodities boom, Morales, Bolivias first Indigenous president, nationalized the nations oil and gas industry, using the lush profits to reduce poverty, expand infrastructure and improve the lives of the rural poor. After three consecutive presidential terms, as well as a contentious bid for an unprecedented fourth in 2019 that set off popular unrest and led to his ouster, Morales has been barred from this race by Bolivias constitutional court. His ally-turned-rival, President Luis Arce, withdrew his candidacy for the MAS on account of his plummeting popularity and nominated his senior minister, Eduardo del Castillo.As the party splintered, Andrnico Rodrguez, the 36-year-old president of the senate who hails from the same union of coca farmers as Morales, launched his bid.Ex-president Morales urges supports to deface ballotsRather than back the candidate widely considered his heir, Morales, holed up in his tropical stronghold and evading an arrest warrant on charges related to his relationship with a 15-year-old girl, has urged his supporters to deface their ballots or leave them blank.Voting is mandatory in Bolivia, where some 7.9 million Bolivians are eligible to vote.Doria Medina and Quiroga, familiar faces in Bolivian politics who both served in past neoliberal governments and have run for president three times before, have struggled to stir up interest as voter angst runs high.Theres enthusiasm for change but no enthusiasm for the candidates, said Eddy Abasto, 44, a Tupperware vendor in Bolivias capital of La Paz torn between voting for Doria Medina and Quiroga. Its always the same, those in power live happily spending the countrys money, and we suffer. Conservative candidates say austerity neededDoria Medina and Quiroga have warned of the need for a painful fiscal adjustment, including the elimination of Bolivias generous food and fuel subsidies, to save the nation from insolvency. Some analysts caution this risks sparking social unrest.A victory for either right-wing candidate could have grave repercussions for Bolivias Indigenous and impoverished communities, said Kathryn Ledebur, director of the Andean Information Network, a Bolivian research group. Both candidates could bolster security forces and right-wing para-state groups, paving the way for violent crackdowns on protests expected to erupt over the foreign exploitation of lithium and drastic austerity measures. All 130 seats in Bolivias Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of Parliament, are up for grabs, along with 36 in the Senate, the upper house.If, as is widely expected, no one receives more than 50% of the vote, or 40% of the vote with a lead of 10 percentage points, the top two candidates will compete in a runoff on Oct. 19 for the first time since Bolivias 1982 return to democracy. ISABEL DEBRE DeBre writes about Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay for The Associated Press, based in Buenos Aires. Before moving to South America in 2024, she covered the Middle East reporting from Jerusalem, Cairo and Dubai. twitter mailto