LA PAZ (AFP) – Bolivians voted for the country’s top judges in a controversial election that has seen campaigning banned and polls suspended in several regions.
With Bolivia due to hold presidential elections in 2025, the judiciary could play a decisive role in a political power struggle between former president Evo Morales and current President Luis Arce for leadership of the left.
Around 7.3 million Bolivians were eligible to vote on 38 judicial positions in the Supreme Court, the Constitutional Tribunal, the Judicial Council and the Agro-Environmental Tribunal, from a list of candidates shortlisted by the parliament.
But critics said the election has politicised the judiciary and that Bolivians are voting blind with campaigning not allowed. Voting is mandatory in Bolivia.
“It’s a blind vote because we don’t know any of the candidates,” Roger Arce, a 60-year-old businessman, told AFP. “It looks more like a theatre to blame us for the fact that we elected… these judges.”
Around 85 per cent of the population in Bolivia’s largest cities have little to no confidence in the justice system, according to a recent Ipsos poll.
In previous elections in 2011 and 2017, more than 60 per cent of votes cast were null or blank.
“I don’t know anyone,” Valentina Esteban, a 57-year-old housewife, said of this year’s candidates. “I don’t know who is telling the truth and who is lying.”
President of the electoral commission Oscar Hassenteufel said on Sunday there had been a high voter turnout and that results would be released in three days.
