RODRIGO PAZ, a right-wing senator, won Bolivia’s presidential election on Sunday.

Mr Paz won 54 per cent of the votes, early results showed, over far-right Jorge Quiroga’s 45 per cent.

Mr Paz told supporters in a victory speech: “Today, Bolivia can be certain that this will be a government that will bring solutions. 

“Bolivia breathes winds of change and renewal to move forward.”

Shortly after the results came in, Mr Quiroga conceded defeat.

“I’ve called Rodrigo Paz and wished him congratulations,” he said in a somber speech, prompting jeers and cries of fraud from the audience. 

But Mr Quiroga urged calm, saying that a refusal to recognise the results would “leave the country hanging.”

“We’d just exacerbate the problems of people suffering from the crisis,” he said. “We need a mature attitude right now.”

Although Mr Paz’s Christian Democratic Party has the cushion of a slight majority in Congress, he’ll still need to compromise to push through his programme.

Mr Paz plans to end Bolivia’s fixed exchange rate, phase out fuel subsidies and cut public spending. But he says he’ll take a gradual approach to free-market reforms, in the hope of avoiding a sharp recession or jump in inflation.