A woman walks past a campaign center for supporters of former President Evo Morales who are in favor or a null vote in the upcoming presidential election in El Alto, Bolivia, August 12, 2025
FORMER Bolivian president Evo Morales is calling for his supporters to vote “nulo” — null and void — in this weekend’s presidential election.
Mr Morales has been barred from standing by the constitutional court, on grounds that his previous terms as president are the most an individual is allowed.
Mr Morales was overthrown in a military coup after winning a fourth term as president in 2019, prompting a year of rule by the army’s appointee Jeanine Anez, but this government fell as soon as it was forced to call elections.
Mr Morales’s Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) easily won these, but under his former finance minister Luis Arce — because he was in exile — and the pair’s subsequent falling out has split the party.
MAS candidate Andronico Rodriguez faces two rightwingers, Jorge “Tuto” Quiroga and Samuel Doria Medina, but Mr Morales’s supporters have vowed to spoil ballots.
Voting is compulsory in Bolivia and while “nulo” votes cannot change the outcome, they could result in the whole election losing credibility.
