IN Plaza Murillo, the heart of the political capital of Bolivia, the PAZ – and which houses the presidential palace, the parliament and the main Catholic cathedral of the country – time can be exhausted for a clock that moves back.
Installed at the top of the Congress Palace during the years of prosperity under the former President Evo Morales, 65, the anti-clockwise watch was conceived as a symbol of the vision of the “decolonial and anti-imperialist” world defended by the left.
But it has since become an emblem of the decline of the Movimimento Al Socialism Party of Morales (Mas) – with some saying that, while the country faces its worst economic crisis in 40 years, Bolivia itself fell.
And when 7.9 million Bolivians go to the polls this Sunday to choose their next president, Mas risks not only losing power after almost 20 years – but it could disappear completely as a political force.
The surveys indicate a potential runoff between two right-wing candidates: the centered-right business magnate and former planning minister Samuel Doria Medina, 66, followed closely by Jorge “Tuto” Quiroga, 65, a former right-wing president who briefly directed the country in 2001 after the resignation of former dictator Hugo Banzer.
The deeply unpopular current president Luis Arce – a former Minister of Moral Finance who snatched MAS control from his former mentor – chose not to ask for his re -election and rather appointed his 36 -year -old Minister of Government, Eduardo Del Castillo.
Unlike the previous elections in which Morales, then Arce obtained victories in the first round with more than 50% of the votes, Del Castillo now intervenes below 3%, the minimum threshold for a party remains eligible to challenge future elections.
“Arce will fall into history while the one who buried the” father “, seized the party and, in all likelihood, led him to an end,” said political and economic analyst Gonzalo Chávez Alvarez, professor at Universidad Católica Boliviana.
Although Bolivia polls have historically revealed unreliable, the perspective of a party which was once hegemonic now leaning on the verge of oblivion is anything but trivial.
“I can bet that we will not lose our legal status,” said Arce to The Guardian late Thursday, arguing that the polls had not predicted his victory in the first round in 2020.
Despite this, the president showed little confidence in any surprise of the left and said that he would respect the result if the law won. “If they are democratically elected, why not accept it?” He said. “And we will mobilize to resist, to be the opposition, of course.”
“I had great hopes for this government, but now I only feel disappointment,” said Pablo Quispe, 55, who has sold hats in the past 25 years in a street market in El Alto – a high altitude boom near the PAZ which was once a Mas.
After years of prosperity driven by a natural gas boom, the reserves have decreased in recent years of the presidency of Morales, triggering an economic crisis which has since been deepened.
“The gas that should have supported the country for much longer – then generated resources to be invested in other sectors, the diversification of the economy – was not used in this way,” said Alvarez.
As part of the Arce, the economy has deteriorated again: by July 2025, annual inflation reached 24.8%, the highest level since at least 2008. Like Bolivia famous 200 years of independence, there are fuel shortages and American dollars, leading to shortages and long lines even for bread.
“Everything is more expensive, and we barely hear ourselves,” said Quispe, who previously voted for Mas but now plans to vote for Medina because “the left no longer works”.
Leticia Guarachi Padilla, a 35 -year -old left -wing entrepreneur who runs a small business, installing blinds and curtains, plans to spoil his ballot to protest against the exclusion of morals from the race.
The first indigenous president in the history of Bolivia and the oldest leader in the country, from 2006 to 2019, Morales was prohibited by the Constitutional Court, who judged that he had already exceeded the limit of two terms, and the electoral court, which argued that his party was not officially recorded.
Since October, he has remained rooted in the center of Bolivia, where hundreds of coca producers have prevented the police from executing an arrest warrant against him for allegations that he had generated a child with a 15 -year -old child during his duties.
In recent weeks, Morales has urged supporters to vote in white – saying that if the number of spoiled voting bulletins exceeds the share won by the best candidate, it would mean that he had won.
The most behind left name is that of Andrónico Rodríguez, a 36 -year -old senator, thinking of the third in the fifth.
Once considered to be the natural heir of Morales because of its indigenous roots and its leaders in the Union of Coca producers, Rodríguez was qualified as a traitor by his former mentor after having decided to launch his own candidacy and seemed unable to reach the support of the fragmented left.
“I voted for Evo every time he ran, and I do not regret it because he promoted structural changes that favored the poorest,” said Padilla, who recognized the “problems” of the former president, including “his relations with minor girls and the fact that he considers himself a Savior, more led by the Ego”. But she always believes that he should have run.
“Voting for Doria or Quiroga means voting for imperialism and the United States to regain control of Bolivia,” she said.
If no candidate earns more than 50% of the votes, or at least 40% with an advance of 10 points in the second, a second round will be held on October 19, which would be unprecedented in the history of the country.
Doria Medina and Quiroga present themselves for the fourth time, but still present themselves as political foreigners. Both recommend spending reductions as the main strategy to combat the economic crisis.
Quiroga says he would favor relations with the United States, while Doria Medina promised to restore the supply of dollars and fuel within 100 days.
His campaign slogan is “100 días, carajo“(100 days, damn), a reference not to the libertarian rallying cry of the Argentinian president Javier Milei”Viva la Libertad, Carajo!“(Long live Freedom, damn it!), But at the 2005 plane, Doria Medina survived, after which he said:”Carajo, no me puedo morir(I can’t die, damn it!).
Continues a motorcycle decorated with campaign flags, automotive engineer Juan Pablo Rodríguez, 28, attended Tuesday at the last Gathering of Doria Medina in La Paz with his wife, Michelle López, also 28 years old, and their one -year -old daughter. “Samuel can repair the crisis because he is a big businessman,” he said.
One of the richest men in Bolivia, with a fortune in cement, hospitality and fast food, Doria Medina told the Guardian that if he was elected, he plans to restore the clock of Murillo Plaza in his original direction in the hourly sense: “Rationality will return, finally.” The current clock, he said, symbolized a country “behind”.
The clock – with number 12 still at the top, but hands turning to the left to count the hours – was installed in 2014 on the initiative of David Choquehuanca, then Minister of Foreign Affairs under Morals and now Vice -President under Arce.
He said it was a way to assert the identity of Bolivia as “southern nation”, arguing that a solar shadow of the southern hemisphere moves to the left.
But the physicist Francesco Zaratti, professor emeritus to the mayor of the University of San Andrés, has long argued that the clock “has no scientific sense”, noting that in Bolivia, the shadow can sometimes move to the right.
“When we have a new president, I bet it will be one of the first things to do, as a symbolic end to the 20 -year cycle of Mas in power,” said Zaratti.
Grover Quima Lima, 35, looks at the clock every day as it sells corn to feed the hundreds of Plaza Murillo pigeons. It was spoken by the crisis, the prices of corn from 120 (£ 13) to 200 (£ 21) Bolivianos in one year.
“For me, it is not relevant that the clock moves back or forward-the only thing that matters is that the next president improves our country,” he said.
