Coronavirus Delays Bolivia Presidential Election Until Octob
Posted: Fri Jul 24, 2020 12:08 am
A healthcare worker in protective gear pushes the body of a man to the spot where his family will wait for a funeral home to take him away, outside the General Hospital in La Paz, Bolivia, July 23, 2020.
Voters in Bolivia will have to wait until October before choosing the country's next president because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Bolivia’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal moved the election date from September 6 to October 18. The vote had initially been set for May 3.
The president of the tribunal, Salvador Romero, said the new date of the election generates better conditions for health protection, convenience for voting from abroad, the arrival of international observation missions, as well as favoring the logistics throughout the territory by all departmental electoral tribunals.
Romero rejected the claim by the controlling party in the legislature that lawmakers had to approve the change in date.
Movement Toward Socialism is the party of former President Evo Morales, who was ousted last year and replaced by interim president Jeanine Áñez.
Bolivia has confirmed more than 64,000 cases of the coronavirus and more than 2,300 deaths.