Bolivia’s Presidential Vote Likely to Go to Congress

Former President Hugo Banzer, a conservative candidate for the Bolivian presidency, claimed victory Monday even though his substantial lead in unofficial returns from Sunday’s general election was apparently not enough to avoid a runoff contest in Congress.

“We hope that this victory will be respected whatever the difference in the number of votes because we were always prepared to recognize those who won the most votes,” he said.

With about a third of the 1.7 million ballots counted, Banzer was winning with more than 37%. He was trailed by Victor Paz Estenssoro, also a former president, with 24% of the votes counted.

In third place was Jaime Paz Zamora, 46, candidate of the Revolutionary Left Movement, with nearly 10% of the vote. The remaining votes were dispersed among 15 others, including Roberto Jordan Pando, running for the left-wing coalition now in power under President Hernan Siles Zuazo.

In an unofficial vote count compiled by Presencia, a morning newspaper, based on 664,000 total votes, Banzer had 231,000, Paz Estenssoro 163,582, and Paz Zamora 64,743. Other unofficial national totals gave Banzer slightly more and Paz Estenssoro less.

The vote was a clear protest against the government under which Bolivia is suffering 10,000% inflation, the world’s highest.

But while Banzer, 58, a retired army general, was clearly going to get the highest vote total, the choice of the president to succeed Siles will not be resolved until the vote count determines the composition of the new Congress that will be seated Aug. 2. When no single candidate receives at least 50% of the vote, Congress must choose a president from among the three highest vote-getters.

In 1979, Congress became deadlocked in a similar runoff, after a close election between Siles and Paz Estenssoro. As a result, the government was provisionally headed by the president of the Senate, Walter Guevara Arce, until he was toppled by a military coup.

All the candidates in Sunday’s election said they want to avoid another such stalemate. But until the full official vote count establishes which party or potential coalition has enough seats in Congress to elect the next president, none is making any deal.