Bolivia advances towards a historic second electoral round. It will be October 19. But what should be a space to discuss proposals, has become a mined field of personal attacks, rumors and misinformation. The dirty war, which had already shown his face in the first vote, is now multiplied in social networks with a dangerous intensity for democracy.
Last week, three of the four candidates signed a commitment to non -aggression. They did it in front of cameras to show their good will. Before the ink dried, the messages of discredit and harassment circulated again in the digital universe. The Supreme Electoral Court, guarantor of said agreement, little or nothing does before the malicious messages. Until now, not a warning, or a sanction; As if nothing happened.
The TSE cannot continue to look at Palco, limited to logistics tasks for the printing of ballots and vote counting. Its mission is also to guarantee the cleaning of the process, and that implies curbing manipulation, lies and dirty game that are normalized today. Citizenship deserves a firm referee, not an indifferent guardian.
Nor do we need bravuces of the parties, endless demands that prepare the rivals to present evidence or mutual accusations that no one listens to. It reaches to suspend the war of memes, videos and recordings manipulated with artificial intelligence.
It reaches that they eliminate misinformation and poisoned propaganda. It reaches that they are ethical and set aside the incoherence of promising what they know they do not want to comply. The campaign looks more like a fight in the mud where everything is worth.
Meanwhile, candidates for president and vice president seem trapped in a bubble. They have made the confrontation a show, but they forget to answer the essential: what will they do to get the country out of the crisis? How will they solve the lack of fuel that the daily economy hits? If they intend to borrow the country, in which phase are the credit requests and with what conditions? How do you plan to protect the most vulnerable from inevitable adjustment measures? How will inflation stop and avoid the devaluation of a minimum wage that is no longer enough to reach the end of the month?
The second round cannot be reduced to an insult competition. Governing will be much harder than competing. And governing will involve healing the wounds open by this campaign. Because those wounds, today deepened by misinformation, tomorrow will be obstacles to the agreements that the country urgently needs. How do candidates think of a Bolivia that they are dividing?
The TSE has in its hands the possibility of preventing this election from being marked by the shadow of the dirty war. It is not enough to ask for sanity. It is not enough with warm exhortations. Democracy demands clear rules and visible sanctions for those who choose to dirty the way instead of explaining their ideas.
The substantive question is whether the court will up to it. At this point, where citizens have shown a more than evident commitment in the defense of democracy, there is no place for a passive and permissive referee. And if the referee does not fulfill his function, he not only loses the game: he loses the faith of citizens in democracy.
