Paz wins Bolivia’s presidental runoff
Monday, October 20th 2025 – 10:55 UTC
Paz’s inauguration is set for Nov. 8 for a five-year term
Rodrigo Paz won Sunday’s runoff and will become Bolivia’s next president. With 97% of the ballots counted, the center-right senator secured 54.5% of the vote, defeating former right-wing president Jorge Tuto Quiroga, who received 45.4%.
Paz’s victory, which came despite pre-election polls predicting Quiroga’s win, puts an end to 20 years of socialist governments in Bolivia. The 58-year-old economist is the son of former President Jaime Paz Zamora (1989-1993). He was born in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, due to his parents’ exile. He previously served as a deputy, mayor of Tarija, and senator.
His campaign slogan was Capitalism for all, which included promises of opening Bolivia to the world, working with all sectors to overcome the crisis, offering cheap credit for entrepreneurs, reducing taxes and tariffs, and legalizing chuto (smuggled) vehicles (though promising to return stolen ones). He now faces the task of leading Bolivia out of its worst economic crisis in four decades.
Bolivia will thus open a new era after two decades under the leftwing Movement Toward Socialism (MAS), first with Evo Morales and then with Luis Arce.
Election day proceeded normally with high turnout, according to the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, which described the elections as calm and without major incidents. The new president will take office on November 8 for a term that will last until 2030.
In 2015, Paz achieved a resounding municipal victory by defeating the MAS in its Tarija stronghold. Since then he has established himself as a pragmatic leader with a strong territorial presence, coming in first in the Aug. 17 first round against all odds.
The next head of State also promised to resolve the fuel crisis and avoid dependence on international financial institutions: I don’t want Bolivia to be a slave to any foreign bank, he said during the campaign.
Paz’s success was based on a cross-party vote that included broad popular sectors, especially in rural and peri-urban areas where the MAS traditionally concentrated its power. Part of his growth is also attributed to his running mate, Edman Lara, a former police officer who gained notoriety on social media for denouncing cases of corruption in the institution.
Quiroga’s supporters accused him of being a Trojan horse for the MAS, due to the support he received from some sectors formerly close to the ruling party, something that Paz emphatically denied. We are neither left nor right. We are a generation that wants Bolivia to produce and grow without guardianship, he said in his victory speech.
