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

Classifying Bolivia's political parties

In general, Bolivian political parties are poorly institutionalized and lack clearly specified ideological positions. While there are some ideologically orthodox parties, these have tended to lack electoral success. The general trend is to employ populist rhetoric and organizational strategies. Nevertheless, there are some basic cleavage structures reflected in the current political paty system.

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.

See also

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