Bolivia's ruling Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) lost the country's four main cities in municipal and regional elections on Sunday, according to two private television stations.
The MAS, the party of Bolivian President Luis Arce and his mentor Evo Morales, president from 2006 to 2019, lost to opposition from the right and the center in the capital La Paz, in the nearby town of El Alto, in Cochabamba, in the center, and in Santa Cruz, in the east, according to polls at the exit of the polling stations carried out for the television stations Unitel and Red Uno.
The election of mayors takes place in Bolivia in a single round by simple majority.
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In the rest of the country, the MAS only won the city of Sucre, in the south-east, and municipal results in four other cities were not immediately known.
Unlike municipal elections, governors' elections take place over two rounds if no candidate has obtained 50% of the votes plus one in the first round.
In these elections, which also took place on Sunday, the MAS only won the department of Cochabamba and lost that of Santa Cruz, according to television surveys.
The polls predict a second round in the other departments: La Paz, Oruro (west), Potosi (southwest), Tarija (south), Chuquisaca (south-east), Beni (north-east) and Pando (north).
The official results will be published by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) in eight to ten days.
About 7.1 million Bolivians were called on Sunday - voting is compulsory - to elect nine governors, 336 mayors, regional assemblies and city councils.
Voters went to vote in different time slots according to the number of their identity card, in order to respect the social distancing imposed due to the pandemic.
Bolivia has recorded 253,950 cases of Covid-19 contamination in one year, including 11,807 deaths.
Luis Arce, backed by former head of state Evo Morales, won the October 2020 presidential election with 55% of the vote.
He called on voters on Sunday morning to confirm this result.
“After restoring democracy in 2020, we must now elect our representatives in the territories,”
he wrote on Twitter.
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The day was marked by a new incident between the MAS and the Organization of American States (OAS), of which a team of observers was present for these elections.
Luis Arce refused for this reason to attend a ceremony of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal to which he was invited.
"As long as the OAS is there, we will not comply with any invitation from the electoral institution
,
"
said Luis Arce.
Speaking to reporters, he added:
"You know the harmful role that the OAS played in the 2019 elections
.
"
The MAS accuses the OAS of contributing to what it sees as a coup against Evo Morales in 2019, then in power since 2006 and running for a new term in the presidential election.
Evo Morales was declared the winner, but the opposition, backed by the OAS, claimed the result was tainted with fraud.
After a wave of demonstrations and violence, Evo Morales, released by the police and the army, had resigned.