Acting President of Bolivia proposes to postpone the general elections for another month or two

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The interim president of Bolivia, Jeanine Áñez, in a blood test at the presidential palace in La Paz on June 12, 2020 (Aizar Raldes / AFP / Getty Images).

(CNN Spanish) - During an act of delivery of medical supplies and biosafety in the department of Tarija, in the south of the country, the president of the Bolivian transitional government, Jeanine Áñez, proposed this Tuesday to postpone one or two more months the general elections, due to the health emergency due to the covid-19 and the risk that it would represent for the population to go to the polls in the midst of the pandemic.

"We want elections, but it does not seem to me responsible not to have sufficient elements that allow us and that allow Bolivians to know if that election day they are not going to be in danger of contagion. That is something that has to be taken into account, and I think that delaying a month or two probably will not harm anyone, and what's more, all Bolivians are going to win with it, ”said the president.

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Áñez's explanation comes after a series of questions from the country's political sectors, who criticized that the president has not yet promulgated the law that establishes the holding of general elections for September 6, which was approved by the Legislative Assembly and sent to the Executive on June 10.

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The president assured that as a government and as a candidate they will not oppose the date established by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) because the country needs to have certainty with democracy.

Recently, the Senate passed Law 691 to modify Law 1297 of the Postponement of the 2020 General Elections, which defines September 6 as the maximum term for the elections, after the TSE sent the Legislative a draft of law with that objective.

Until Tuesday afternoon, and according to official data from the Ministry of Health, Bolivia registers 19,073 confirmed cases of covid-19 and 632 deaths nationwide.

Jeanine Áñez