At stake in this election:   

• The office of President of Bolivia

Description of government structure:

• Chief of State: President Juan Evo MORALES Ayma (since 22 January 2006)*
• Head of Government: President Juan Evo MORALES Ayma (since 22 January 2006)[i]
• Assembly: Bolivia has a bicameral Plurinational Legislative Assembly (Asamblea Legislativa Plurinacional) consisting of the Chamber of Senators (Camara de Senadores) with 36 seats and the Chamber of Deputies (Camara de Diputados) with 130 seats.

* The president is both the chief of state and head of government.

Description of electoral system:

• The President is elected by majority vote through a two-round system to serve a 5-year term.
• In the Chamber of Senators (Camara de Senadores) 36 members are elected through a closed-list proportional representation system to serve 5-year terms*.
• In the Chamber of Deputies (Camara de Diputados), 70 members are elected by plurality vote in single-member constituencies to serve 5-year terms, 53 members are elected through a closed-list proportional representation system to serve 5-year terms and 7 members are elected by plurality vote in single-member constituencies to serve 5-year terms.** [ii]

* Each of the nine Bolivian states elects four Senators. Allocation is by the D'Hondt method. (Before December 2009, there were three Senators per state, and no party could win more than two of the three seats in each.)

** PR seats are apportioned to each state in proportion to population, and these are allocated to parties in proportion to their respective shares of the Presidential vote in each state. Seven reserved indigenous seats are apportioned to non-contiguous, rural areas in seven of the nine states. Voters who declare themselves indigenous may vote for an indigenous deputy instead of in the regular, single-member district election.

Election Note:

On Sunday 12 October 2014, Bolivia will hold an election for president.[iii]

Main candidates in the electoral race:

• Candidate: Juan Evo MORALES Ayma
  • Party: Movement Toward Socialism/Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS)
• Candidate: Samuel Doria MEDINA Arana[iv]
  • Party: National Unity Front/Frente de Unidad Nacional (UN)
• Candidate: Juan Del GRANADO Cosio
  • Party: Movement Without Fear/Movimento Sin Miedo (MSM)
• Candidate: Jorge QUIROGA
  • Party: Christian Democratic Party/ Partido Demócrata Cristiano (PDC)

Last election:

• The last election for President of Bolivia was held on 6 December 2009.[v] Turnout was 94.55 percent and 4,859,440 of 5,139,554 people casted ballots.[vi] Evo MORALES Ayma of the Movement for Socialism (MAS) won with 64 percent of the vote.[vii] His main opponent, Manfred REYES Villa, of the Plan Progress for Bolivia party, won 26 percent of the vote.[viii] Samuel Doria MEDINA Arana, who ran as the National Unity Front (UN) and will be running in 2014 presidential election, won 5.65 percent of the vote.[ix] Results can be found here.

Population and number of registered voters:

• Population: 10,631,486 (July 2014 est)[x]
• Registered Voters: 5,139,554 (2009)[xi]

Gender Data:

• Female Population: 5,370,483 (July 2014 est)[i]
• Is Bolivia a signatory to CEDAW: Yes (since 1980)[ii]
• Has Bolivia ratified CEDAW: Yes (8 June 1990)[iii]
• Gender Quota:  Yes: “Legislated Candidates Quotas” for both the Chamber of Deputies and the Chamber of Senators[iv]
• Female Candidates in this election: 0
• Number of Female Legislators: 29 (22%) of 130 seats in the Chamber of Deputies (2009) and 17 (47%) of 36 seats in the Chamber of Senators (2009)[v]
• Human Development Index (HDI) Position: 113[vi]
• Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) Ranking: 20^th out of 86 non-OECD countries (latest rankings are from 2012)[vii]