November 01, 2020
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People Celebrate their Victory in Bolivia

BOLIVIA's Electoral Supreme Court (TSE) declared Luis Arce, the elected president of the Plurinational State of Bolivia and David Choquehuanca as vice-president after the official vote counting showed that Arce's party, the Movement Towards Socialism, reached a landslide victory of 55.10 per cent of the votes. About 6,483,893 Bolivians out of the 7,332,926 registered went to the polls, representing a participation rate of 88.4 per cent, the second-highest in Bolivia's history.

The Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) represents the majority in the Chamber and the Senate in 130 deputy seats. Overall, the MAS secured 3,393,978 votes.

A huge victory celebration was held in El Alto, where social movements from around the country have descended, in what was termed as the ‘Grand cultural party for the recuperation of democracy’. This celebration included the presence of representatives of all peoples and nationalities of the country. Vice President-elect David Choquehuanca stated that the celebration was a cultural manifestation of the Bolivian peoples: “The people have recovered their spirit, our people have recovered their ‘ajayu’ their courage”.

The MAS also secured a majority in both the chambers of the parliament. A significant feature of the elected representatives is that majority of them are women. The MAS achieved a majority in the Senate with 21 seats, of which 10 are occupied by women. As for the Chamber of Representatives, 48.33 per cent of the plurinominals are men, while 51.6 per cent of the seats will be held by women. Meanwhile, women's majority returns in the uninominals with 57.14 per cent of the seats. Indigenous representation will be led by women with 57.14 per cent. Also, 55.56 of the supra-state representatives are women. A significant number of elected women parliamentarians are new faces, which shows the confidence of the electorate in their women representatives. Bolivia ranks third in the world, after Rwanda and Cuba, in terms of women's representation in parliament.