BOLIVIA’S presidential election is heading to an unprecedented run-off after voting on Sunday.

The poll appears to have ended more than two decades of left-wing rule, while signalling voters’ worries about a major lurch to the right.

Centrist Senator Rodrigo Paz outperformed his opinion poll rating and drew more votes than the right-wing favourites, although not enough to secure an outright victory.

Mr Paz, a former mayor who has sought to soften the edges of the opposition’s push for tough austerity amid claims that Bolivia faces looming economic collapse, looks likely to face right-wing former president Jorge ”Tuto” Quiroga in the second round of voting on October 19. 

The run-off is the country’s first since its 1982 return to democracy.

“This economic model must change,” Mr Paz told crowds who cheered and chanted: “Renewal!”

The final first-round results have not yet been announced, but he appears to have received 32.8 per cent of the votes cast, with Mr Quiroga picking up 26.4 per cent. 

The results were a major blow to Bolivia’s Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) party.

Official MAS candidate Eduardo del Castillo finished sixth, with just 3.2 per cent of the vote.

Senate president Andronico Rodriguez, a leftwinger who was seen as the party’s best hope, did better, but his 8 per cent still reflected a sharp drop in MAS support.