Political parties

From Bolivian Politics

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Bolivia has historically had a multiparty system. Until 2002, the party system was dominated by three to five medium-sized parties. Seats in the National Congress are (since 1997) elected in a mixed-member proportional electoral system. Before 2005, no presidential candidate was able to win a simple majority, and coalition governments were the norm. Only recently, the party system is dominated by two parties: MAS and PODEMOS.

All political parties must register with the National Electoral Court (CNE). Recent constitutional changes allow civic associations and indigenous communities to register and run slates of candidates in municipal, departmental, and national elections. Some of the "parties" registered with the CNE are more appropriately considered electoral fronts or electoral alliances. For simplicity, they are all referred to here as parties.


Contents

Major parties

The following political parties, civic associations, or electoral alliances won seats in the 2005 general election and the 2006 constituent assembly election.

National parties

The following political parties have presence in all nine departments.

Regional parties

The following parties have presence in only one department.

La Paz

Cochabamba

Oruro

Potosí

Tarija

Santa Cruz

Minor parties

The following parties did not elect delegates in the most recent 2006 constituent assembly election.

The following parties did not meet the electoral threshold in the 2005 general election and lost their registry status.

Ideological classification

Because of the country's strong populist legacy, Bolivian parties are often difficult to categorize by ideology. Likewise, many parties officially declare themselves as "nationalist" or heirs of the national revolution, regardless of where they fit on a left-right spectrum. Nevertheless, the parties can be broken down as follows into the following categories:

A final type are the personalist parties, which are both difficult to classify on any spectrum and quite common on Bolivian politics. A variety of political parties display a strong element of personalism, but the term is reserved for those that are almost purely personalist political vehicles.

See also

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