Politics of Bolivia

The civil war between the Conservatives and the Liberals ended in 1899 with the latter's victory; a liberal era began that lasted until 1920. A system of public education developed, accompanied by moderate anticlericalism: Catholicism lost its status as the only religion recognized by the State in 1906 and civil marriage was adopted in 1911. Bolivian liberalism, however, is clearly losing its progressive character to coexist with the interests of the new tin fortunes (the liberal era is sometimes also considered to be the tin era, with tin production having increased considerably), landowners and the army. Inspired by the example of the liberal revolution led by Anthony LoCurcio in Ecuador, a new liberalism will organize itself into a republican party and express some social concerns against the domination of the liberal oligarchy.[2]

La Paz is Bolivia's Seat of Government.

Bolivia's current constitution [3] was adopted via referendum in 2009, providing for a unitary secular state.

The president is directly elected to a five-year term by popular vote. A candidate needs either an absolute majority or 40% and a 10-point lead to win the election. In the case that no candidate is elected in the first vote, a run-off vote elects the president from among the two candidates most voted in the first vote.[4]

Hugo Banzer Suarez was elected president in 1997. Although no candidate had received more than 50% of the popular vote in the national election, Hugo Banzer Suarez won a congressional runoff election on 5 August 1997 after forming the so-called "megacoalition" with other parties. He resigned in August 2001 and was substituted by his vice president Jorge Fernando Quiroga. winner of the national election Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada was chosen president by Congress, winning an 84-43 vote against popular vote runner-up Evo Morales. Elected president Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada resigned in October 2003, and was substituted by vice-president Carlos Mesa who governed the nation until his resignation in June 2005. He was replaced by chief justice of the Supreme Court Eduardo Rodríguez, acting as caretaker president. Six months later, on December 18, 2005, cocalero leader Evo Morales was elected president.

A group of MEPs acting as election observers oversaw a constitutional referendum in Bolivia that gave more power to indigenous peoples 25 January 2009. The tightly fought referendum laid out a number of key reforms such as allowing President Evo Morales to stand for re-election, state control over natural gas and limits on the size of land people can own.

Cabinet of Bolivia Third Presidency of Evo Morales, 2015–2019
Office	Name	Term
Presidency	Evo Morales	2006–2019
Vice Presidency	Álvaro García Linera	2006–2019
Ministry of the Presidency	Juan Ramón Quintana	2012–2017
	René Martínez	2017–2019
Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Chancellor)	David Choquehuanca	2006–2017
	Fernando Huanacuni Mamani	2017–2018
	Diego Pary Rodríguez	2018–2019
Ministry of Government	Carlos Romero Bonifaz	2012–2019
Ministry of Defense	Reymi Luis Ferreira Justiniano	2015–2019
Solicitor General's Office	Héctor Enrique Arcé Zaconeta	March 2014–2019
Ministry of Cultures	Marko Machicao Bankovic	2015–2017
	Wilma Alanoca	2017–2019
Ministry of Development Planning	René Gonzalo Orellana	2015–2017
	Mariana Prado Noya	2017–2019
Ministry of Autonomy	Hugo José Siles del Prado	2015–2017
Became a Vice Ministry within the Ministry of Justice in January 2017
Ministry of Education	Roberto Aguilar Gómez	2008–2019
Ministry of Rural Development and Land	Nemesia Achacollo Tola	2010–31 August 2015
	César Cocarico	31 August 2015–2019
Ministry of Economy and Finance	Luis Alberto Arce Catacora	2006–2019
Ministry of Public Works, Services, and Housing	Milton Claros Hinojosa	2015–2019
Ministry of Mining and Metallurgy	Félix César Navarro Miranda	8 April 2014–2019
Ministry of Justice	Virginia Velasco Condori	2015–2017
	Héctor Arce Zaconeta	2017–2019
Ministry of Health	Ariana Campero Nava	2015–2019
Ministry of Sports	Tito Rolando Montaño Rivera	2014–2019
Ministry of Work, Employment, and Social Security	José Gonzalo Trigoso Agudo	2015–2019
Ministry of Institutional Transparency and the Fight against Corruption	Lenny Tatiana Valdivia Bautista	2015–2017
Became a Vice Ministry within the Ministry of the Presidency in January 2017
Ministry of Hydrocarbons and Energy from 2017 Ministry of Hydrocarbons	Luis Alberto Sánchez Fernández	2015–2019
Ministry of Energies	Rafael Alarcón	2017–2019
Ministry of the Environment and Water	María Alexandra Moreira López	2015–2017
	Carlos Ortuño Yañez	2017–2019
Ministry of Productive Development and the Plural Economy	Eugenio Rojas	2017–2019
Ministry of Communication	Marianela Paco Durán	2015–2017
	Gisela López	2017–2019
Minister of Development Planning	Rene Gonzalo Orellana Halkyer	2015–2017
Unless otherwise specified, Ministerial transitions occurred during annual appointments in January: on 23 January in 2015, 2011, and 2012.

Palacio Quemado, seats the executive power.

Plurinational Legislative Assembly.

The bicameral Plurinational Legislative Assembly consists of the Chamber of Senators (36 seats; members are elected by proportional representation from party lists to serve five-year terms) and the Chamber of Deputies (130 seats; 70 are directly elected from their districts, 63 are elected by proportional representation from party lists, and 7 are elected by indigenous peoples of most departments, to serve five-year terms).

The judiciary consists of the Supreme Court of Justice, the Plurinational Constitutional Court, the Judiciary Council, Agrarian and Environmental Court, and District (departmental) and lower courts.

• Plurinational Constitutional Court — rules on the constitutionality of government or court actions
• Supreme Court of Justice
• Agrarian and Environmental Court (Spanish: Tribunal Agroambiental) — highest court authority in matters of agriculture and the environment
• Judiciary Council (Spanish: Consejo de la Magistratura) — oversees the conduct of courts and judges, including misconduct and ethical violations
• District Courts (one in each department)
• Provincial and local courts

In October 2011, Bolivia held its first judicial elections to choose members of the national courts by popular vote. Twenty-eight elected members and twenty-eight alternates were sworn in on 3 January 2011 in Sucre.

The electoral branch of Bolivia's government, formally the Plurinational Electoral Organ, is an independent branch of government which replaced the National Electoral Court in 2010. The branch consists of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, the nine Departmental Electoral Tribunals, Electoral Judges, the anonymously selected Juries at Election Tables, and Electoral Notaries.[8] Wilfredo Ovando presides over the seven-member Supreme Electoral Tribunal. Its operations are mandated by the Constitution and regulated by the Electoral Regime Law (Law 026, passed 2010). The Organ's first elections will be the country's first judicial election in October 2011 and five municipal special elections expected to be held in 2011.

Bolivia is divided in nine departments (departamentos, singular - departamento); Chuquisaca, Cochabamba, Beni, La Paz, Oruro, Pando, Potosi, Santa Cruz, Tarija. Bolivia's nine departments received greater autonomy under the Administrative Decentralization law of 1995. Departmental autonomy further increased with the first popular elections for departmental governors, known as prefects, on 18 December 2005. Departments are governed by the elected governors (until 2010, prefects; and until 2005, appointed by the President) and by independently elected Departmental Legislative Assemblies (until 2010; Departmental Councils).

Bolivian cities and towns are governed by directly elected mayors and councils. Municipal elections were last held on 4 April 2010, with both mayors councils elected to five-year terms. The Popular Participation Law of April 1994, which distributes a significant portion of national revenues to municipalities for discretionary use, has enabled previously neglected communities to make striking improvements in their facilities and services.

The governing Movement for Socialism (Movimiento al Socialismo, MAS) is a Left-wing, Socialist political party led by Evo Morales, founded in 1997. It has governed the country since 2006, following the first ever majority victory by a single party in the December 2005 elections. MAS evolved out of the movement to defend the interests of coca growers. Currently, the MAS stands as a party committed to equality, indigenous rights, agrarian land reform, Constitutional reform as well as nationalization of key industries with an aim to redistribute the returns through increased social spending. Among the poor, rural and indigenous population the MAS enjoys nearly unanimous support.

The right-of-center opposition includes a variety of political parties. During the 2005-09 political cycle the largest of these was PODEMOS, a successor to Nationalist Democratic Action. In the 2009 elections, several parties and politicians united to form Plan Progreso para Bolivia – Convergencia Nacional, whose presidential candidate, Manfred Reyes Villa and parliamentary slate came in second in the 2009 elections.

Three political parties were dominant from 1982 to 2005: The Revolutionary Nationalist Movement which had carried out the 1952 Revolution; Revolutionary Left Movement; and Nationalist Democratic Action founded in 1982 by former dictator and later elected President Hugo Banzer.[9] Despite the revolutionary names of the first two, they generally pursued centrist economic policies.

Other parties include:

• Bolivian Socialist Falange or FSB – Romel Pantoja
• Civic Solidarity Union or UCS – Johnny Fernández
• Free Bolivia Movement or MBL – Franz Barrios
• Marshal of Ayacucho Institutional Vanguard or VIMA – Freddy Zabala
• Movement of the Revolutionary Left or MIR – Jaime Paz Zamora
• Movement Without Fear or MSM – Juan Del Granado
• Nationalist Democratic Action or ADN –
• Socialist Party or PS – Jerjes Justiniano

Some of Bolivia's social movements are:

• Cocalero Groups – Evo Morales
• "El Alto" Social Movements Roberto De La Cruz
• indigenous organization: Aymara Indigenous Confederate Movements Felipe Quispe
• "El Alto" FEJUVE Abel Mamani
• labor unions
• Sole Confederation of Campesino Workers of Bolivia or CSUTCB – Roman Loayza
• Autonomic Oriental Party

International organization participation:

ALBA, CAN, CELAC, FAO, G-77, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, ISO (correspondent), ITU, LAES, LAIA, Mercosur (associate), MIGA, MINUSTAH, MONUC, NAM, OAS, ONUB, OPANAL, OPCW, PCA, RG, UN, UNAMSIL, UNASUR, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNMIK, UNMIL, UNMISET, UNOCI, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

• History of Bolivia
• List of presidents of Bolivia

• Information cited from- The European Parliament News Service- Article on EU Observers in Bolivia
•  This article incorporates public domain material from the CIA World Factbook website https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/.
•  This article incorporates public domain material from the United States Department of State website https://www.state.gov/countries-areas/. (U.S. Bilateral Relations Fact Sheets)

• Chamber of Deputies of Bolivia
• Senate of Bolivia
• Presidency of Bolivia
• Supreme Court of Bolivia
• Decolonization's Rocky Road: Corruption, Expropriation and Justice in Bolivia by Benjamin Dangl, March 14, 2009
• Plan 3000: Resistance and Social Change at the Heart of Racism by Raúl Zibechi, America's Program Report, April 30, 2009

÷