Bolivia: Luis Arce Could Take Office First Half Of November

Bolivia’s Supreme Electoral Court’s (TSE) President Salvador Romero on Tuesday announced that the elected authorities, both from the Executive and the Legislative Branches, will take office in the first half of November.

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Romero also said that if the count at any voting table was annulled, that particular voting process would have to be repeated within the next two weeks.

"As long as that table is not integrated into its departmental computation, the official and definitive national computation could not be closed," he added,

TSE president stressed that his institution is working to define that count as soon as possible so that the new authorities "enter into the office quickly."

"Today we have a much more solid, firm, and secure democracy than we had yesterday," Romero said, and praised to all politicians because they recognized the preliminary results without any problem.

"Accepting defeat is one of the central features in the consolidation of democracy," he added.

During the elections held on Oct. 18, citizen participation reached 87 percent of registered voters. This was a historical record as the previous highest level of citizen participation was reached in the 2005 elections when 82 percent of voters turned out to vote.

According to exit poll data, the MAS candidate Luis Arce won with 52.4 percent of the votes, while the candidate for Citizen Community Carlos Mesa reached 31.5 percent.