The day of judicial elections in Bolivia, during which will be elected for the third time in the elections, albeit partially, magistrates of the country’s highest courts, began with the opening of the electoral colleges, where more than 7.3 million Bolivians will be able to vote this Sunday.

5,597 polling stations across the country began opening at 08:00 local time. They will work eight hours without a break until 16:00. when schools are expected to close.

At the opening of voting day, the President of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE), Oscar Hassenteufel, made a statement. review of the rocky road traveled to organize elections and indicated that they were approaching this moment “with a conflicted spirit.”

“On the one hand, with satisfaction of the fulfilled duty, but on the other handand deep sorrow because these elections should have been timely, complete, and not partial. like the one we had to manage,” he noted.

Hasenteufel ratified the TSE’s criticism of a constitutional ruling that invalidated appeals to two courts in some regions of Bolivia because violated the principle of “cessation” and ignored the authority of the body responsible for managing the electoral process.

He noted that since constitutional provisions are binding, TSE “He had no choice but to carry out the electoral process” in part.

Thus, citizenship will elect 19 of 26 judges Supreme Courts (TSJ), Plurinational Constitutional Courts (TCP), Agro-Environmental Courts (TA) and the Judicial Council.

Voting supervision is carried out by 8084 notaries and 198114 jurors distributed across 33,019 voting tables.

Previously, 94 candidates were elected to the national parliament. according to the provisions of the Constitution, in force since 2009, which stipulates that judges are elected by popular vote for a term of six years.

These elections are the third of their kind in Bolivia. after those carried out in 2011 and 2017, which had a large number of white and zero votes in rejecting processes, considered at the time to be manipulated by the Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) government, to elect government-affiliated judges.

In accordance with the constitutional decree in this case, elections They will be held in full only in La Paz, Oruro, Potosí and Chuquisaca. while in Beni, Pando, Cochabamba, Tarija and Santa Cruz they will not be able to elect TCP judges, and in the first two departments they will also not vote for TSJ candidates.

The terms of the judges elected in 2017 were supposed to end earlier this year, butIn December 2023, PTS decided to expand it. arguing that they sought to avoid a “power vacuum” in the absence of elections, which could not be held in 2023 due to problems in the legislature and numerous court cases that have stalled the process several times.

The electoral process has presence of international observation missions sent, among others, by the Organization of American States (OAS), the Inter-American Union of Electoral Organizations (Uniore) and the Mercosur Parliament.

In Bolivia, voting is compulsory at age 18. although those over 70 or those out of the country on election day are no longer required to pay.

By voting, a person receives suffrage which must be presented for any procedure in government agencies and banks within 90 days after the elections.

Those who don’t vote They have 30 days to justify their absence from the elections. and receive a “certificate of exemption” or pay a fine of 500 Bolivianos (about US$71.8).

There are also sanctions for those who violate restrictions those that apply on Election Day, such as the ban on driving non-TSE-approved vehicles, or those that apply from Friday, such as Prohibition.

Former President of Bolivia, Eduardo Rodriguez Welze, who also headed that country’s Supreme Court between 2004 and 2005, explained last June in Aristegui Live what a choice judges and magistrates through popular vote in Bolivia did not help change structural problems justice systems.

“My experience, with the greatest respect, is that judges appointed by the people They have not changed and cannot change, at least in Bolivia. structural problems that it has to do with other issues, and rather if they have political interference by a sympathetic party in any way in the elections, they are more likely to contribute to the regressive process of that purpose,” he said.

In 2009, the Constitution of the Plurinational State of Bolivia introduced a system of popular elections of the courts. supreme judge the South American country has established that every six years Bolivians can go to the polls to renew the composition of the Constitutional Court, the Supreme Court and the Judicial Council.

“This should be a routine process involving pre-selection through the legislative process and then goes to the polls– he explained.

However, Rodrigues Welze described various problems that arose in two cases of using this model in the country, e.g. the dominant party makes a preliminary choice with party criteria for these candidates, and not because of their merits.

“It is clear that the two previous experiences have shown that the dominant party has pre-selected these candidates using party criteria, if not precisely because of its merits,” he assured.

According to the constitution of this country, Bolivian Parliament pre-selects judges whom citizens will vote for office.

The former president of Bolivia claimed that It has been proven in this country that this was a bad decision. election by popular vote of the judges and magistrates constituting the principal courts, taking into account the inability and difficulty of the citizens to know the candidates.

“I would rule out the possibility that the popular vote, From what we have mentioned, due to the inability or difficulty of a citizen to know several candidates and lack of professional ability to judge them, this will improve the result, I have always been inclined to reject this option, I did so at the time when the Constituent Assembly was discussing this possibility, and at that time Bolivia confirmed that this was a bad decision. perhaps this will be discussed again to reverse the situation,” he added.

Watch the full interview:

(according to information from EFE And Aristegui News)