Bolivia heads to a presidential runoff as 2 decades of left-wing dominance ends

LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) — Bolivia's presidential vote headed to an unprecedented runoff after elections Sunday that ended more than two decades of left-wing dominance in the Andean nation but signaled voters' trepidation about a major lurch to the right.

A dark horse centrist, Sen. Rodrigo Paz, drew more votes than the right-wing front-runners, although not enough to secure an outright victory, early results showed.

Paz, a former mayor who has sought to soften the edges of the opposition’s push for tough austerity to rescue Bolivia from a looming economic collapse, will face off against right-wing former President Jorge “Tuto” Quiroga, who finished second. Bolivia holds the presidential runoff — its first since its 1982 return to democracy — on Oct. 19.

“This economic model must change," Paz declared to crowds who cheered and chanted, “Renewal!"

Paz’s campaign gained unexpected traction in recent weeks as he teamed up with Edman Lara, a social media savvy ex-police captain with evangelical backing whose supporters see him as a bold leader willing to stand up to corruption in the security forces.

With over 91% of the ballots counted Sunday, Paz received 32.8% of the votes cast. Quiroga secured 26.4%. Candidates needed to surpass 50%, or 40% with a 10-point margin of victory, to avoid a runoff.

Addressing fans and flanked by family as confetti hearts sprayed from the ceiling, Quiroga congratulated Paz on his lead.

“What happened is unprecedented,” he said. “Bolivia told the world that we want to live in a free nation.”

The results delivered a stunning blow to Bolivia's hegemonic Movement Toward Socialism, or MAS, party, which has governed Bolivia almost uninterrupted since its founder, charismatic ex-President Evo Morales, rose to power as part of the “pink tide” of leftist leaders that swept into office across Latin America during the commodities boom of the early 2000s.

The official MAS candidate, Eduardo del Castillo, finished sixth with just 3.2% of the vote. A leftist candidate considered to be the party's best hope, 36-year-old Senate president Andrónico Rodríguez, captured 8% of the vote.

During his almost 14 years in power, Morales expanded the rights of the country’s Indigenous majority, defended coca growers against U.S.-backed eradication programs and poured natural gas profits into social programs.

But the maverick leader’s increasingly high-handed attempts to prolong his presidency — along with allegations of sexual relations with underage girls — soured public opinion against him.

Simmering discontent turned into a tidal wave of outrage as Bolivia’s once-stable economy imploded under Morales’ protégé-turned-rival, President Luis Arce.

Annual inflation rate has soared from 2% less than two years ago to 25% as of last month. A scarcity of fuel has paralyzed the country. A desperate shortage of U.S. dollars needed to pay for essential imports like wheat has crippled the economy.

As the crisis accelerated, MAS leaders traded blame. A power struggle between Morales and Arce fractured the bloc and handed the opposition its first real shot at victory in decades even as its uncharismatic candidates failed to unite.

In perhaps the most visible sign of how fed up Bolivians are with the party, leftist politicians casting their ballots across Bolivia on Sunday faced barrages of boos, insults and thrown objects.

Blocked from running by a court ruling on term limits, Morales has been holed up in his tropical stronghold of Chapare for months evading an arrest warrant for allegedly impregnating a 15-year-old girl while president.

He has branded Rodríguez a traitor for competing and encouraged his supporters to register their anger at his exclusion by casting null-and-void ballots.

His followers appeared to heed his calls: An unusually high proportion of votes, 19%, were deemed invalid. Usually the share of blank and null votes doesn't exceed 6%.

Tensions ran high as Morales' supporters mobilized against elections but voting even in the restive jungle largely passed peacefully, authorities said, with only minor disruptions.

A dynamite stick went off near the school where Rodríguez planned to cast his ballot in Chapare. When he arrived hours later, pro-Morales crowds assaulted him with bottles and rocks as he voted. Whisked away by guards, Rodríguez later called it a “difficult moment.”

The win for Paz came as a shock to a nation that had been conditioned by weeks of opinion polls to expect that the leading right-wing contenders, Quiroga and businessman Samuel Doria Medina, would capture the top two spots.

Sunday marked Doria Medina's fourth failed presidential bid. He told grim-faced supporters that he had “no regrets.”

“I wanted to serve Bolivia as president, and it hasn’t been possible,” he said.

The promotion of Paz and his more moderate tone reflects Bolivian ambivalence about a dramatic veer to the right.

Paz has sought to distance himself from pledges by Quiroga and Doria Medina to sell Bolivia’s abundant lithium reserves to foreign companies and turn to the International Monetary Fund for billions of dollars of loans.

But he has also launched blistering attacks on the MAS party and its economic model.

“I want to congratulate the people because this is a sign of change,” Paz said.

Despite their grand promises, Doria Medina and Quiroga struggled to stir up voter excitement.

Bolivians associate them both with the U.S.-backed neoliberal administrations that Morales repudiated when he stormed to office in 2006, declaring an end to Bolivia’s 20-year experiment with free-market capitalism.

“If they couldn’t govern well before, what makes us think they’ll do it now?” asked Yaitzel Poma, 30, referring to Paz’s right-wing rivals as she celebrated along the main avenue of Bolivia’s capital of La Paz on Sunday. “We have to learn from the past to make better choices.”

After 20 years of Morales’ populist, state-directed policies, Bolivia faces a return to belt-tightening. After years of alignment with world powers like China and Russia, Bolivia seems set to reconcile with the United States.

Paz supporters have described the former mayor Bolivia's southern town of Tarija as a fresh face with new ideas.

“We want new people, new proposals, another chance for young people,” said 38-year-old Jaqueline Cachaca, a Paz supporter who lost her job at a bank this year amid a wave of layoffs and now sells street food.

But Paz, too, has deep ties to Bolivia’s old political elite. The 57-year-old lawmaker has had a long career in politics — running for senator with Quiroga's right-wing party in 2014.

He's the son of former President Jaime Paz Zamora, who began his political career as a co-founder of the Revolutionary Left Movement, a radical party persecuted under the bloody military dictatorship of Hugo Banzer in the 1970s, before striking a pact with Banzer’s right-wing party in order to become president from 1989 to 1993.

Doria Medina served as his minister of planning in that government, which oversaw a series of privatizations that devastated local industry.

“What we're doing is moving back in time,” said Kathryn Ledebur, director of the Andean Information Network, a Bolivian research group. “This is not a new actor with dynamic policies. He's a surrogate for the reconstruction of the traditional right.”

FILE - This combination photo shows presidential candidates Rodrigo Paz, left and Bolivia's former President Jorge Quiroga, right. (AP Photos/Freddy Barragan, Arnulfo Franco)

Presidential candidate Rodrigo Paz, center, addresses supporters after early results showed him leading in the presidential election in La Paz, Bolivia, Sunday, Aug. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Freddy Barragan)

Presidential candidate Rodrigo Paz leaves after accompanying his daughter Catalina to vote during general elections, in La Paz, Bolivia, Sunday, Aug. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Freddy Barragan)

Presidential candidate Rodrigo Paz leaves after accompanying his daughter Catalina to vote during general elections, in La Paz, Bolivia, Sunday, Aug. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Freddy Barragan)

Presidential candidate Jorge "Tuto" Quiroga gestures after voting in general elections in La Paz, Bolivia, Sunday, Aug. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

Presidential candidate Samuel Doria Medina embraces his wife, Nidia Monje, as their daughter Sandra looks on after he voted in general elections in La Paz, Bolivia, Sunday, Aug. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Freddy Barragan)

Presidential candidate Jorge "Tuto" Quiroga waves after voting in general elections in La Paz, Bolivia, Sunday, Aug. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Freddy Barragan)

Voters check electoral rolls during general elections in Jesus de Machaca, Bolivia, Sunday, Aug. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)

Presidential candidate Jorge "Tuto" Quiroga waves before voting in general elections in La Paz, Bolivia, Sunday, Aug. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

Supporters throw confetti on former President Evo Morales after a meeting with a peasants' federation, before he voted in presidential and legislative elections in Villa 14 de Septiembre, in the Chapare region of Bolivia, Sunday, Aug. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)

Presidential candidate Samuel Doria Medina waves after voting in general elections in La Paz, Bolivia, Sunday, Aug. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

Voters line up at a polling post during general elections in El Alto, Bolivia, Sunday, Aug. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

Voters line up at a polling startion during general elections in Jesus de Machaca, Bolivia, Sunday, Aug. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)

An electoral official shows to voters the presidential ballot during general elections in Jesus de Machaca, Bolivia, Sunday, Aug. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)

Presidential candidate Samuel Doria Medina shows his ballot during national elections in La Paz, Bolivia, Sunday, Aug. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

An electoral official displays a ballot listing presidential candidates during general elections in La Paz, Bolivia, Sunday, Aug. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

A voter marks her ballot during presidential and legislative elections in La Paz, Bolivia, Sunday, Aug. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

A voters displays her ballot during general elections in La Paz, Bolivia, Sunday, Aug. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

An electoral official displays a presidential ballot during general elections in La Paz, Bolivia, Sunday, Aug. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

A voter marks her ballot during presidential and legislative elections in La Paz, Bolivia, Sunday, Aug. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

A doll adorned with a miniature presidential depicting former President Evo Morales, who is promoting a null vote campaign in the presidential and legislative elections, sits on a shelf in his office during an interview in Lauca N, Chapare region, Bolivia, Saturday, Aug. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)

Honor guards stand outside the presidential palace, days ahead of the presidential election in La Paz, Bolivia, Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

FILE - Bolivian presidential candidate Samuel Doria Medina attends his campaign rally ahead of the upcoming presidential election, in La Paz, Bolivia, July 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Juan Karita, File)

FILE - Bolivian presidential candidate Jorge "Tuto" Quiroga attends his campaign rally ahead of the upcoming presidential election, in La Paz, Bolivia, Aug. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Juan Karita, File)

FILE - A fruit vendor waits for customers in La Paz, Bolivia, Aug. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Juan Karita, File)

U.S., Danish and Greenlandic officials have met face to face to discuss President Donald Trump's ambitions to take control of Greenland, a semiautonomous territory of Denmark. At the same time, Denmark and several European allies are sending troops to Greenland in a pointed signal of intent to boost the vast Arctic island's security.

Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said after a meeting in Washington on Wednesday with his Greenlandic counterpart, U.S. Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio that a “fundamental disagreement” remained. He acknowledged that “we didn't manage to change the American position” but said he hadn't expected to.

However, Wednesday's events did point to ways ahead.

Denmark, Greenland and the U.S. agreed to form a high-level working group “to explore if we can find a common way forward,” Løkke Rasmussen said. He added that he expects the group to hold its first meeting “within a matter of weeks.”

Danish and Greenlandic officials didn't specify who would be part of the group or give other details. Løkke Rasmussen said the group should focus on how to address U.S. security concerns while respecting Denmark's “red lines.” The two countries are NATO allies.

“Whether that is doable, I don't know,” he added, holding out hope that the exercise could “take down the temperature.”

He wouldn't elaborate on what a compromise might look like, and expectations are low. As Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen put it Thursday, having the group is better than having no working group and “it's a step in the right direction.” It will at least allow the two sides to talk with each other rather than about each other.

Trump has argued repeatedly that the U.S. needs control of Greenland for its national security. He has sought to justify his calls for a U.S. takeover by repeatedly claiming that China and Russia have their own designs on Greenland, which holds vast untapped reserves of critical minerals.

Just as the talks were taking place in Washington on Wednesday, the Danish Defense Ministry announced that it was increasing its military presence in Greenland, along with NATO allies. France, Germany, Norway and Sweden announced that they were each sending very small numbers of troops in a symbolic but pointed move signaling solidarity with Copenhagen.

The U.K. said one British officer was part of what it called a reconnaissance group for an Arctic endurance exercise. The German Defense Ministry, which dispatched 13 troops, said the aim is to sound out “possibilities to ensure security with a view to Russian and Chinese threats in the Arctic.” It said it was sending them on a joint flight from Denmark as “a strong signal of our unity.”

Poulsen said that "the Danish Armed Forces, together with a number of Arctic and European allies, will explore in the coming weeks how an increased presence and exercise activity in the Arctic can be implemented in practice,” he said.

On Thursday, he said the intention was “to establish a more permanent military presence with a larger Danish contribution,” and to invite allies to take part in exercises and training on a rotating basis, according to Danish broadcaster DR.

While the European troops are largely symbolic at this point, the timing was no accident.

The deployment “serves both to send a political signal and military signal to America, but also indeed to recognize that Arctic security should be reinforced more," said Maria Martisiute, an analyst at the European Policy Center in Brussels. "And first and foremost, this should be done through allied effort, not by the U.S. coming and wanting to take it over. So it complicates the situation for the U.S.”

The European efforts are Danish-led and not coordinated through NATO, which is dominated by the United States. But the European allies are keen to keep NATO in play, and Germany said that “the aim is to obtain a well-founded picture on the ground for further talks and planning within NATO."

Poulsen has said he and Greenland's foreign minister plan to meet NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in Brussels on Monday to discuss security in and around the Arctic. NATO has been studying ways to bolster security in the Arctic region.

“I’m really looking forward for an announcement of some kind of military activity or deployment under NATO’s framework,” Martisiute said. “Otherwise there is indeed a risk that ... NATO is paralyzed and that would not be good.”

Sylvain Plazy in Brussels contributed to this report.

Denmark's Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen and Greenland's Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt speak at a news conference at the Embassy of Denmark, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/John McDonnell)

An Airbus A400M transport aircraft of the German Air Force taxis over the grounds at Wunstorf Air Base in the Hanover region, Germany, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026 as troops from NATO countries, including France and Germany, are arriving in Greenland to boost security. (Moritz Frankenberg/dpa via AP)

Denmark's Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen and Greenland's Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt speak at a news conference at the Embassy of Denmark, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/John McDonnell)

A man rides by on a quad bike past a row of Greenlandic national flags in Nuuk, Greenland, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)