Senator Rodrigo Paz won the second round of Bolivian presidential election, according to preliminary results from 97.53% of the votes cast, published by the South American country's Supreme Electoral Court.
The centrist Christian Democratic Party candidate received 54.54% of the vote, while former president (2001-2002) Jorge Quiroga, representing the right-wing Alliance for Freedom and Democracy, received 45.46%.
As the president of the Supreme Electoral Court, Oscar Asenteofel, stated at a press conference, although the results are preliminary, “the trend is irreversible“.
Paz, the son of former Bolivian President Jaime Paz Zamora, who ruled the country from 1989 to 1993, proposes economic decentralization through the redistribution of tax revenues to regions and municipalities, as well as the implementation of an affordable credit program and the provision of tax breaks to support small and medium-sized businesses. The politician opposes the use of loans from international financial institutions to implement his program. Paz believes that it is necessary to intensify Bolivia's contacts with the rest of the world, giving priority to the restoration of relations with the United States and the development of regional cooperation, including within the framework of the Common Market of the South (Mercosur).
The newly elected president will take office on November 8.