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Bolivia Opens National Debate on Electoral System Reform
🇵🇾 Paraguay /Elections & Politics

Bolivia Opens National Debate on Electoral System Reform

From ABC Color · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources Ongoing story
  • Bolivia’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal opened a nationwide process to propose changes to electoral laws and address weaknesses in the current system.
  • The discussions will cover vote counting, candidate registration and replacement, gender parity, campaign debates, polling publication and election technology.
  • The tribunal plans to visit all nine departments and also prepare a new electoral register to replace the one created in 2009.

Bolivia has opened a national debate on reforming its electoral system, with the country’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal seeking proposals from authorities in all nine departments. Tribunal president Gustavo Ávila inaugurated the process in Cochabamba, saying the goal was to build amendments to the laws governing the electoral body, elections and political organizations.

Ávila said a reform of this scale could not be developed behind closed doors or serve particular institutional or political interests. It should respond to Bolivia as a whole, he said. The process will examine vote-counting mechanisms, candidate registration and substitution, gender parity and alternation rules, electoral debates, the publication of opinion polls and the use of technology in elections.

A task of this magnitude cannot be done behind four walls or respond to particular, institutional, political or temporary interests. It must respond at all times to Bolivia.

— Gustavo ÁvilaThe president of Bolivia’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal described the principles guiding the reform process.

The tribunal president called for “modern, clear regulation suited to the new times,” arguing that democracy could not be administered through old rules designed for realities that had changed. Departmental electoral tribunals will present their proposals, experience and concerns as the process travels across Bolivia. Ávila said the aim was to listen to everyone without exclusion and create a system that is more democratic, transparent, efficient, modern and legitimate.

We want an electoral system that is increasingly democratic, transparent, efficient, modern and, above all, legitimate.

— Gustavo ÁvilaÁvila stated the tribunal’s goals for the proposed changes.

The reform effort follows an extended electoral cycle that began in December 2024. It included partially held judicial elections, the 2025 general election, which featured a second round for the first time, and regional and municipal elections in March. Legal challenges delayed judicial elections that had been due in 2023, while disputes also arose over the approval and disqualification of candidates, decisions that can be made as late as 72 hours before voting.

Ávila has also criticized restrictions on vehicle movement during election days and rules that do not cover digital media advertising. Alongside the legal reform, the tribunal plans to introduce a new electoral register to replace the current roll, which dates from 2009.

Modern, clear regulation suited to the new times.

— Gustavo ÁvilaThe tribunal president summarized the kind of rules he said Bolivia needs.
About this summary

Originally published by ABC Color in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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