A few days after the general elections a second round is projected among the candidates, who had the first places in the surveys and debates: Samuel Doria Medina and Jorge Quiroga Ramírez. It will be the first time that Bolivians are going to repeat the vote, also called ballot. The third national survey on the intention to vote of El Duty showed a competitive scenario between Samuel Doria Medina (Unit) and Jorge Tuto Quiroga (Free), who lead citizen preferences with 24.5% and 22.9%, respectively. Between them there were 1.6 percentage points of difference, a true technical tie that can still change depending on the undecided votes and some other variables that may arise in the final stretch of the political campaign. The presidential election is still open and everything can happen.
The Law of the Electoral Regime establishes that the election of the president or president and vice president or vice president is carried out in the unique national constituency, through universal suffrage, of the lists of candidates and candidates presented by the national political organizations with current legal personality (art. 52). And proclaims president or president and vice president or vice president who have obtained: a) more than fifty percent (50%) of the valid votes cast; ob) a minimum of forty percent (40%) of the valid votes cast, with a difference of at least ten percent (10%) in relation to the second most voted candidacy.
The constitutional foundation of the election is in sovereignty, which resides in the Bolivian people, and exercises directly and delegate; sovereignty that is externalized through the exercise of fundamental political rights that corresponds to all citizens. The suffrage constitutes the basis of the representative democratic regime and is based on the universal, direct and equal, individual, free and mandatory vote; In addition, the public scrutiny and the proportional representation system.
The Constitution establishes that the candidacy that has obtained fifty percent plus one of the valid votes will be proclaimed to the presidency; or a minimum of forty percent of the valid votes, with a difference of at least ten percent in relation to the second candidacy (art. 166). In the event that none of the candidacies meets these conditions, a second electoral round is carried out between the two most voted candidates, within sixty computable days from the previous vote, and the presidency is proclaimed and the vice presidency that the candidacy that has obtained most of the votes has already obtained.
It must be remembered that, as in the 1979-1983 period, five elections were held and the absolute majority required by the 1967 Constitution, the election was resolved in the National Congress could not be obtained. But nor was the president designated because there was a “congressional bassoon”, in the fifth vote the president of the Senate was appointed as “interim” president of the Republic, with the mission of calling elections a year later. Against all the designated forecast, Walter Guevara Arce, was overthrown by a military coup 85 days later. In 1989, Congress, prior agreement between Hugo Banzer Suárez and Jaime Paz Zamora, chose Jaime Paz who obtained third place in the general elections with less than 22% of the votes, displacing Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada that occupied the first place (relative majority) and Hugo Banzer who achieved second place.
All this dire experience forced to modify the aforementioned article 90 of the Constitution of 1967, being drafted in the constitutional reform of 1994, in the sense that in the case of a tie the vote will be repeated for twice consecutive times in an oral and nominal manner and to persist the tie, the president and vice president are proclaimed to the candidates who had achieved the simple majority of valid suffragies in the general election in the general election. The 2009 Constituent recognized the second round when the candidacy has not gathered fifty percent plus one of the valid votes, or a minimum of forty percent of the valid votes, with a difference of at least ten percent in relation to the second candidacy.
