Voters check electoral rolls during general elections in Jesus de Machaca, Bolivia, Sunday, Aug. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)2025-08-18T12:53:07Z LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) Bolivias presidential vote is headed to an unprecedented runoff after Sundays election ended over two decades of ruling party dominance in the Andean nation.A centrist, Sen. Rodrigo Paz, drew more votes than the front-runners, although not enough to secure an outright victory, early results showed.Paz, a former mayor who has sought to soften the edges of the oppositions push for austerity to rescue Bolivia from a looming economic collapse, will face off against former President Jorge Tuto Quiroga, who finished second. Bolivia holds the presidential runoff its first since its 1982 return to democracy on Oct. 19.This economic model must change, Paz declared to crowds who cheered and chanted, Renewal!Pazs campaign had gained unexpected traction as he teamed up with Edman Lara, a social media savvy ex-police captain with evangelical backing whose supporters see him as someone willing to stand up to corruption in the security forces. With over 91% of the ballots counted Sunday, Paz received 32.8% of the votes cast. Quiroga secured 26.4%. Candidates needed to surpass 50%, or 40% with a 10-point margin of victory, to avoid a runoff. Quiroga congratulated Paz on his lead.What happened is unprecedented, he said. Bolivia told the world that we want to live in a free nation. An establishment confronts its demiseThe results delivered a blow to Bolivias Movement Toward Socialism, or MAS, party, which has governed almost uninterrupted since its founder, charismatic ex-President Evo Morales, rose to power as part of the pink tide of leaders who swept into office across Latin America during the commodities boom of the early 2000s.The official MAS candidate, Eduardo del Castillo, finished sixth with 3.2% of the vote. A candidate considered to be the partys best hope, 36-year-old Senate president Andrnico Rodrguez, captured 8% of the vote.During his almost 14 years in power, Morales expanded the rights of the countrys Indigenous majority, defended coca growers against U.S.-backed eradication programs and poured natural gas profits into social programs.But the maverick leaders increasingly high-handed attempts to prolong his presidency along with allegations of sexual relations with underage girls soured public opinion against him.Discontent turned into outrage as Bolivias once-stable economy imploded under Morales protg-turned-rival, President Luis Arce.Annual inflation rate has soared from 2% less than two years ago to 25% as of last month. A scarcity of fuel has paralyzed the country. A shortage of U.S. dollars needed to pay for essential imports like wheat has crippled the economy.As the crisis accelerated, MAS leaders traded blame. A power struggle between Morales and Arce fractured the bloc and handed the opposition its first real shot at victory in decades, even as its uncharismatic candidates failed to unite. Morales supports heed calls to vote nullBlocked from running by a court ruling on term limits, Morales has been holed up in his stronghold of Chapare for months evading an arrest warrant for allegedly impregnating a 15-year-old girl while president.He has branded Rodrguez a traitor for competing and encouraged his supporters to register their anger at his exclusion by casting null-and-void ballots.His followers appeared to heed his call: An unusually high proportion of votes, 19%, were deemed invalid. Usually the share of blank and null votes doesnt exceed 6%.Voting even in the restive jungle largely passed peacefully, authorities said, with only minor disruptions.A dynamite stick went off near the school where Rodrguez planned to cast his ballot in Chapare. When he arrived hours later, pro-Morales crowds assaulted him with bottles and rocks as he voted. Whisked away by guards, Rodrguez later called it a difficult moment. A centrist takes a surprise leadThe win for Paz came as a shock to a nation that had been conditioned by weeks of opinion polls to expect that the leading contenders, Quiroga and businessman Samuel Doria Medina, would capture the top two spots.Paz has sought to distance himself from pledges by Quiroga and Doria Medina to sell Bolivias abundant lithium reserves to foreign companies and turn to the International Monetary Fund for billions of dollars of loans.But he has also launched blistering attacks on the MAS party and its economic model.I want to congratulate the people because this is a sign of change, Paz said. New face, old rootsDespite their grand promises, Doria Medina and Quiroga struggled to stir up voter excitement. Bolivians associate them both with the U.S.-backed neoliberal administrations that Morales repudiated when he stormed to office in 2006, declaring an end to Bolivias 20-year experiment with free-market capitalism.If they couldnt govern well before, what makes us think theyll do it now? asked Yaitzel Poma, 30, as she celebrated in the capital of La Paz. We have to learn from the past to make better choices.Bolivia faces a return to belt-tightening. After years of alignment with world powers like China and Russia, it seems set to reconcile with the United States.Paz supporters have described the former mayor Bolivias southern town of Tarija as a fresh face with new ideas.But Paz, too, has deep ties to Bolivias old political elite. The 57-year-old lawmaker is the son of former President Jaime Paz Zamora, who began his political career as a co-founder of the Revolutionary Left Movement, a party persecuted under the bloody military dictatorship of Hugo Banzer in the 1970s.What were doing is moving back in time, said Kathryn Ledebur, director of the Andean Information Network, a Bolivian research group. This is not a new actor with dynamic policies. 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