Luis Arce wins elections in Bolivia with massive support

Leftist leader Luis Arce pledged to “reconstruct” Bolivia in the wake of a turbulent year injured by the political commotion and the coronavirus pandemic, after obtaining a landslide achievement in the Andean nation’s presidential vote.

The Supreme Electoral Tribunal declared on Friday, Arce won 55 percent of the ballots against six rivals on the vote, merely bypassing the requirement for a run-off, and implementing support for the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) party of former President Evo Morales who was removed last year and now resides in exile.

“Now our biggest difficulty is to restore our country in harmony, to recover happiness, perseverance and support for a better tomorrow for all Bolivians,” Arce announced on social media in answer to the final decision, with a video of his followers throughout the nation.

“We won’t let down the trust that people have installed in us.”

Salvador Romero, the head of Bolivia’s electoral authority, announced in a press briefing late on Friday that there had been an enormous turn-out notwithstanding COVID-19.

“With 88 percent support, Bolivians set the second biggest record in our history and one of the largest in Latin America in the 21st century,” he told journalists.

“This declares how people want to exist in harmony and with organisations that meet their purpose and refused the gloomy forecasts of dispute and confusion.”

Arce’s main competitor, centrist former President Carlos Mesa lingered in second with just under 29 percent of the majority.

Conservative Luis Fernando Camacho, one of the conductors of the demonstration movement that supported drive Morales out of the country a year ago, earned only 14 percent of the vote.