1979 Bolivian general election

General elections were held in Bolivia on 1 July 1979.[1] As no candidate in the presidential elections received a majority of the vote, the National Congress was required to elect a President. However, the Congress failed to elect a candidate after three ballots, and instead selected Senate leader Wálter Guevara to serve as Interim President for a year on 8 August.[2] Guevara was later overthrown by a military coup led by Alberto Natusch on 31 October. Fresh elections were held in June 1980.

Although the Democratic and Popular Union received the most votes in the Congressional elections, the Revolutionary Nationalist Movement-Alliance (A–MNR) won the most seats, largely as a result of the electoral system giving more seats to sparsely populated rural areas where the A–MNR was more popular.[3]

Background

General elections had previously been held in July 1978, the first since 1966, with several military coups taking place during the late 1960s and early 1970s.[1] Although Juan Pereda of the Nationalist Union of the People won the presidential elections, more votes were cast than there were registered voters.[4] After examining a number of allegations of fraud and other irregularities, the Electoral Court decided to annul the results on 20 July.[5] The following day, Pereda was installed as President following a military coup. Pereda himself was overthrown by yet another military coup in November, which saw General David Padilla assume the presidency,[6] promising to hold fresh elections in July the following year.[3]

Campaign

A total of 1,378 candidates contested the 144 seats in Congress.[3] Several alliances were formed for the elections:[7]

Alliance	Parties
Democratic and Popular Union	Communist Party
	Leftwing Revolutionary Nationalist Movement
	Movement of the National Left
	Alliance of the National Left
	Popular Movement for National Liberation
	Revolutionary Left Movement
	Revolutionary Party of the Nationalist Left
	Revolutionary Party of the Workers of Bolivia
	Socialist Party–Atahuichi
	Tupaj Katari Revolutionary Movement
Popular Alliance for National Integration	Revolutionary Agrarian Movement of the Bolivian Peasantry
	Bolivian Socialist Falange
Revolutionary Nationalist Movement-Alliance	Authentic Revolutionary Party
	Christian Democratic Party
	Communist Party of Bolivia (Marxist–Leninist)
	Revolutionary Nationalist Movement
	Tupaj Katari Revolutionary Movement–Chila

Results

Election result by department:

  Departments where Paz Estenssoro won

  Departments where Siles won

Party	Presidential candidate	Votes	%	Seats
				Chamber	Senate
Democratic and Popular Union	Hernán Siles Zuazo	528,696	36.0	38	8
Revolutionary Nationalist Movement-Alliance	Víctor Paz Estenssoro	527,184	35.9	48	16
Nationalist Democratic Action	Hugo Banzer	218,857	14.9	19	3
Socialist Party-1	Marcelo Quiroga Santa Cruz	70,765	4.8	5	0
Popular Alliance for National Integration	René Bernal Escalante	60,262	4.1	5	0
Indian Movement Túpac Katari	Luciano Tapia Quisbert	28,344	1.9	1	0
Bolivian Union Party	Walter Gonzales Valda	18,976	1.3	1	0
Workers' Vanguard Party	Ricardo Catoira	16,560	1.1	0	0
Invalid/blank votes		223,856	–	–	–
Total		1,693,500	100	117	27
Registered voters/turnout		1,871,070	90.5	–	–
Source: Nohlen

By department

Department	NDA	RNM	DPU	Others
Beni	33.88%	41.27%	15.85%	9.00%
Chuquisaca	11.19%	38.60%	38.56%	11.65%
Cochabamba	18.56%	27.91%	29.20%	24.34%
La Paz	16.29%	16.37%	54.76%	12.57%
Oruro	9.19%	39.97%	31.31%	19.52%
Pando	23.65%	56.50%	12.31%	7.54%
Potosi	7.82%	51.41%	33.48%	7.29%
Santa Cruz	15.40%	56.35%	18.33%	9.92%
Tarija	14.78%	65.92%	14.70%	4.60%
Source: Constituency-Level Election Archive

See also

• Bolivian National Congress, 1979–1980

References

1. Nohlen, D (2005) Elections in the Americas: A data handbook, Volume II, p133 ISBN 978-0-19-928358-3
2. Report on the situation of human rights in the Republic of Bolivia: Chapter IV: Political rights Archived February 1, 2012, at the Wayback Machine OAS
3. 1979 IPU
4. Nohlen, p143
5. Waltraud Q Morales (2003) A brief history of Bolivia New York: Facts On File, p195
6. Nohlen, p157
7. Nohlen, p139