Carter Center Commends Bolivians and the Electoral Tribunal on a Calm and Respectful Election

[Judi Lynn]

October 23, 2020
(En español)

LA PAZ, BOLIVIA (Oct. 23, 2020) — The Carter Center today released a preliminary report (PDF) about Bolivia’s Oct. 18 general elections, which saw record participation and intense political competition despite the COVID-19 pandemic and the political tensions that have roiled the country in the past year.

Bolivian citizens reaffirmed their support for democracy in a calm and respectful atmosphere on election day, which local citizen observers described as well-organized and incident-free. The counting of the ballots was open to political party representatives, election observers, and interested citizens.

The Carter Center commends Bolivia’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal, known by its Spanish acronym, TSE, for conducting a complex election process with independence, impartiality, and transparency, paving the way back to the constitutional framework. The TSE operated with a high level of transparency during each stage of the process, from the updating and purging of the voter registry to the publication of the official results.

The TSE’s prudent decision to cancel the preliminary results system (DIREPRE) and to rely instead exclusively on the slower but more reliable official count in no way affected this transparency. While the decision led to a slower report of official results, Bolivians were able to see the detailed reports on the TSE website in real time.

More:
https://www.cartercenter.org/news/pr/2020/bolivia-102320.html