The politics of Bolivia takes place in a framework of a presidential representative democratic republic, whereby the president is head of state, head of government and head of a diverse multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the two chambers of parliament. Both the Judiciary and the electoral branch are independent of the executive and the legislature. After the 2014 Bolivian general election, 53.1% of the seats in national parliament were held by women, a higher proportion of women than that of the population.
Carlos Diego de Mesa Gisbert is a Bolivian historian, journalist, and politician who served as the 63rd president of Bolivia from 2003 to 2005. As an independent politician, he previously served as the 37th vice president of Bolivia from 2002 to 2003 under Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada and was the international spokesman for Bolivia's lawsuit against Chile in the International Court of Justice from 2014 to 2018. A member of the Revolutionary Left Front, he has served as leader of Civic Community, the largest opposition parliamentary group in Bolivia, since 2018.
The 2010 Bolivian regional elections were held on 4 April 2010. Departmental and municipal authorities were elected by an electorate of approximately 5 million people. Among the officials elected are:
The Movement for Sovereignty is a leftist, indigenist Bolivian political party founded by dissidents of the Movement for Socialism (MAS-IPSP). Its leader, and fourth-place candidate for Governor of La Paz department in the 2010 regional election is Lino Villca. Other MAS-IPSP activists involved in founding the MPS include Óscar Chirinos, Miguel Machaca, and Rufo Calle. The party's colors are blue, white, and yellow.
The Revolutionary Left Front is a political party in Bolivia, founded in 1978.
The Supreme Court of Justice is the highest court of ordinary jurisdiction in Bolivia, based in Sucre. Its powers are set out in Articles 181–185 of the 2009 Constitution and the Law of the Judicial Organ. It was first seated on 2 January 2012.
General elections were held in Bolivia on 20 October 2019. Voters elected all 130 members of the Chamber of Deputies and 36 senators and cast ballots for a joint slate of president and vice president. The Bolivian constitution allows the President and Vice-President to put themselves forward for re-election only once, limiting the number of terms to two, and the elections took place after in 2016 a referendum to amend the constitution was rejected, but that the Supreme Court of Justice ruled that all public offices would have no term limits despite what was established in the constitution and allowing Morales to run for a fourth term.
General elections were held in Bolivia on 18 October 2020 for President, Vice-President, and all seats in both the Senate and Chamber of Deputies. Luis Arce of the Movement for Socialism (MAS) party was elected president in a landslide, winning 55% of the vote and securing majorities in both chambers of the Plurinational Legislative Assembly. The results of the election superseded the disputed results of the October 2019 elections, which were annulled during a prolonged political crisis.
Creemos is a far-right coalition consisting of the Solidarity Civic Unity (UCS) and Christian Democratic Party (PDC) in Bolivia. It was previously an alliance, which fielded Luis Fernando Camacho as its candidate for president during the 2020 Bolivian general election where he garnered 14% of the vote.
Oscar Miguel Ortiz Antelo is a Bolivian businessman and politician who served as minister of economy and public finance from July to September 2020 and as minister of productive development from May to July 2020. As a member of the Social Democratic Movement, he previously served two terms as a senator for Santa Cruz from 2015 to 2020 on behalf of the Democratic Unity coalition and from 2006 to 2010 on behalf of the Social Democratic Power alliance. Nearing the end of his second term, Ortiz was his party's presidential candidate, attaining fourth place in the annulled 2019 general elections. During his first term, he served as president of the Senate from 2008 to 2010, the last opposition legislator to preside over the upper chamber as of 2024. Outside of national politics, Ortiz served as president of the Union of Latin American Parties from 2018 to 2021 and has been the rector of the Bolivian Catholic University at Santa Cruz since 2021.
The 2021 Bolivian regional elections were held on 7 March 2021. Departmental and municipal authorities were elected by an electorate of approximately 7 million people. This was the third regional election under the 2009 constitution. It was postponed from the expected date of 2020 due to the 2019 Bolivian political crisis and delays in holding the 2020 Bolivian general election. All elected authorities assumed office on 3 May.
Andrea Bruna Barrientos Sahonero is a Bolivian businesswoman, politician, and singer-songwriter serving as senator for Cochabamba since 2020. A member of Civic Community, she served as the leader of the alliance's caucus in the Senate from 2020 to 2021.
Corina Ferreira Domínguez is a Bolivian businesswoman, model, and politician serving as senator for Pando since 2020. A member of Civic Community, she served as the leader of the alliance's caucus in the Senate in 2021 and, aged thirty-one at her entry, is the youngest legislator in the upper house. Prior to entering politics, she worked as a professional model and was crowned Miss Pando 2009.
Rodrigo Paz Pereira is a Bolivian politician serving as senator for Tarija since 2020. A member of Civic Community, he has been the leader of the First the People civic group —the alliance's primary partner in Tarija— since 2019. As a member of United to Renew, he previously served as mayor of Tarija from 2015 to 2020 and as president of the Tarija Municipal Council from 2010 to 2015. Prior to that, he served as a uninominal member of the Chamber of Deputies from Tarija representing circumscription 46 from 2005 to 2010 and circumscription 49 from 2002 to 2006, on behalf of the Revolutionary Left Movement, the party of his father, former president Jaime Paz Zamora.
The 2021 Beni gubernatorial election was held on Sunday, 7 March 2021, to elect the governor of Beni, Bolivia. Alex Ferrier, the incumbent governor after the 2015 gubernatorial election but who resigned during the 2019 political crisis, ran to return to office for a second term. He was defeated by Alejandro Unzueta, who received a popular vote plurality of 41.79 percent—a margin of more than forty percent plus ten percent above the next closes competitor—allowing for a first-round victory without the need for a runoff.
Diana Patricia Paputsakis Burgos is a Bolivian lawyer, politician, and former student leader who served as secretary of women and family of Tarija from 2015 to 2019. Prior to her service in the municipal government, Paputsakis served as a substitute member Chamber of Deputies from Tarija, representing circumscription 45 under Víctor Hugo Zamora from 2010 to 2014 on behalf of the National Convergence alliance. In the 2019 general election, Paputsakis was elected to represent Tarija's circumscription 40 on behalf of Civic Community, but never took office, owing to the annulment of the electoral results and the coalition's decision not to re-nominate her in 2020. Paputsakis later contested the 2021 Tarija mayoral election, finishing sixth in the polls.
The 2021 La Paz municipal election was held in La Paz, Bolivia on Sunday, 7 March 2021, involving separate contests for mayor and all eleven municipal council seats. Incumbent mayor Luis Revilla was eligible to seek a third term but declined, leaving the mayoralty an open contest. The election was won by former minister of public works Iván Arias of the alliance, who attained a near absolute majority of 49.52 percent against a field of ten other candidates. On the municipal ballot, Somos Pueblo won 48.04 percent of the vote, winning the six seats needed to exercise a simple majority on the municipal council, with the Movement for Socialism taking the remaining five seats. Revilla's party, Sovereignty and Liberty, lost both the mayoralty and all representation on the municipal council, concluding a twenty-year period of political continuity that started in 2000 with the assumption of Juan del Granado.
Herbert Salvatierra Becerra is a Bolivian lawyer and politician who served as a member of the Chamber of Deputies from Pando, representing circumscription 66 from 2010 to 2015. Salvatierra pertains to a generation of conservative parliamentarians who entered the political arena in the heat of the conflicts of the late 2000s, agitating for regional autonomy for the eastern departments and pushing for the rejection of the new, progressive Constitution ratified during the first Evo Morales administration. Polarization over these issues reached its breaking point in Pando, resulting in the Porvenir massacre, which dealt a heavy blow to the department's opposition-controlled prefecture and civic committee. In the aftermath, Salvatierra was propelled to the presidency of the reconstituted Pando Civic Committee, remaining an ally of the department's jailed prefect, Leopoldo Fernández, for the duration of his political career.
Erwin Rivero Ziegler is a Bolivian biochemist, pharmacist, and politician who served as senator for Beni from 2015 to 2020. Rivero spent most of his professional career working in the pharmaceutical industry, only entering politics at the turn of the twenty-first century. He joined the Revolutionary Nationalist Movement, holding minor posts at the provincial and departmental levels. With the collapse of the Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada administration in October 2003, Rivero distanced himself from the government party and was appointed prefect of Beni by Carlos Mesa. He remained in office for half a year before being ousted for his role in the military's violent dispersal of protesters near Puente San Pablo. Undeterred, Rivero formed his own party, Community Autonomy, with which he competed for the Trinidad mayoralty, attaining third place, losing the contest but attaining a seat in the city's municipal council. The following year, he campaigned to return to the prefecture, finishing third. Despite his conservative political origins, Rivero aligned himself with the ruling Movement for Socialism, with which he unsuccessfully contested the Trinidad mayoralty before finally being elected as a senator for the party.
Saúl Octavio Lara Torrico is a Bolivian lawyer, jurist, and politician who has served as a party-list member of the Chamber of Deputies from Cochabamba since 2020. A member of Civic Community, he previously served as vice minister of the interior from 2003 to 2004 and as minister of government from 2004 to 2005. A graduate of the Higher University of San Simón, Lara spent much of his career as a legal advisor and consultant for various public and private institutions and corporations. From 1993 to 1997, he served as chief of staff to Foreign Minister Antonio Araníbar, during which time he joined the minister's party, the Free Bolivia Movement, of which he was secretary of finance. Appointed to head the Ministry of Government in 2004, Lara developed a lasting personal friendship with then-president Carlos Mesa, aiding his 2019 campaign to return to the presidency. The following year, he joined Civic Community's electoral list in the Cochabamba Department, netting a seat in the Chamber of Deputies in the 2020–2025 Legislative Assembly.
