Center-Left Coalition Backs Moderate to Lead Bolivia

A coalition of center and left-wing parties with a majority in Congress agreed Sunday to support the election of Victor Paz Estenssoro, a moderate reformer, as the next president of Bolivia.

But the presidential election--a run-off contest in a special session of Congress--bogged down Sunday night. The final vote was obstructed by a tumult in the galleries and a parliamentary filibuster by congressmen supporting the rival conservative candidate, Hugo Banzer.

The choice in Congress was between two former presidents who polled the highest vote in a direct popular election July 14. But the runoff was required because neither obtained the 50%majority required for direct election.

The vote in Congress came with less than 48 hours remaining in the term of outgoing President Hernan Siles Zuazo. The choice of Siles’ successor was a test of constitutional stability and democratic government here.

The high command of the Bolivian armed forces announced before the scheduled vote that they would respect Congress’ decision. Important sectors of the army support the democratic process and find Paz the best choice at this time.

Paz is expected to take over as president Tuesday from Siles, who cut short his four-year presidential term after three years and called national elections this year in face of a serious economic crisis.

President Raul Alfonsin of Argentina was among prominent Latin American leaders who announced they will come here for the presidential transfer. A U.S. delegation will be led by Elliott Abrams, assistant secretary of state for inter-American affairs.

Bolivia, a poor country of 5 million people, is suffering the worst inflation in the world. Prices have been increasing at an annual rate of 10,000% recently. The Central Bank has no reserves and has been unable to pay interest for a year to foreign private banks, which are owed $750 million.

Paz has said that his first priority will be financial stabilization. He said he will negotiate with the International Monetary Fund for financial help, something Siles was unable to do because helacked control over his left-wing party coalition, which opposed such a step.

Paz, 78, is familiar with the uncertainties of being president of Bolivia. He first became president in 1952 at the head of a revolution that nationalized Bolivia’s big tin mines and distributed large rural estates to Indian peasants.

Backed by the Nationalist Revolutionary Movement, a political party he and Siles had founded, Paz was elected to a second term in 1960. He was reelected in 1964 but two months later was overthrown by a military coup led by his vice president.

After years in exile in Argentina, Peru and the United States, but never far removed from Bolivian political intrigue, Paz returned here when an armed forces regime headed by Banzer ended seven years in power in 1978.

He ran for president that year in elections that were annulled because of fraud. He ran again in 1979, finishing behind Siles, but then Congress became deadlocked in a run-off contest and neither became president. Another election was held in 1980, but a military coup ended that democratic attempt.

After three more military coups between 1980 and 1982, a group of “constitutionalist” officers seized control and placed in office the Congress elected in 1980. That Congress elected Siles president.

This year’s election was a new forward step toward consolidating democratic civilian government here. The election was flawed, with charges of fraud from all major parties, but the final count by the National Electoral Court was accepted in the end by all.

Banzer, with a conservative program of fiscal discipline to halt inflation and of restoration of private enterprise, harvested the middle-class protest vote against the Siles administration. He won in all major cities, but Paz carried seven of the country’s nine departments, receiving large majorities in rural areas where the peasant vote for the Nationalist Revolutionary Movement is rooted in that party’s agrarian reform program of 1952-1956.

A majority of the 157 senators and deputies in Congress preferred Paz, although Banzer gained the largest plurality in the direct popular election of July 14, polling 37,000 more votes than Paz.

In the congressional runoff, Banzer, 58, a retired army general who headed a military regime that governed from 1971 to 1978, refused to negotiate for votes. He insisted on being recognized as the winner because of his popular majority.

Paz, an experienced political horse-trader, obtained the votes he needed to win by making concessions to smaller parties, mainly of the left.

Banzer’s backers packed the galleries and exchanged fierce shouts with Paz’s supporters. But without allies, Banzer and his party could not gain the congressional votes needed to win.

When the Revolutionary Left announced it was backing Paz, the 41 Banzer deputies walked out, shouting that Banzer had been “robbed” of victory by a deal between “the left and the corrupt.”