Bolivia's Right-Wing Follows Latest Trend, Plans to Boycott Primary Elections

The right-wing script continues in Latin America, opposition parties will boycott primary elections in Bolivia scheduled for Sunday to elect the parties candidates for president and vice president for the presidential elections in October.

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Out of the nine parties participating in the October presidential elections, only two are fully participating in Sunday's primary elections. The Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) of President Evo Morales and the Third System Movement of the La Paz governor Felix Patzi will mobilize their popular bases for the suffrage.

The other seven parties are calling for abstention and will only send small groups of "delegates" to vote in the ballots of the country, to guarantee that the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) authorizes the candidates to run in October.

According to the vice president of the Plurinational Electoral Body (OEP), Antonio Costas, "one" vote is enough to enable the candidates in the primary elections, so the parties are not doing anything illegal. However, "the TSE encourages participation because each electoral process involves the strengthening of democracy."

According to the opposition parties, these primaries are attempting to "legitimize" the candidates of the MAS Evo Morales and Alvaro Garcia Linera. However, primary elections is an important part of democracy in many countries in the world.

The president of the Lower Chamber, Victor Borda, warned about a possible "excuse" as "in the books, the opposition parties have a determined quantity of members, and in reality said quantity does not exist. I think they are trying to cover reality. They enter the rules of the game and now they run."