Sawt Falasteen - Bolivia elects center-right president, ending two decades of socialism

With 97 percent of ballots counted, Rodrigo Paz had 54.5 percent of the vote compared to 45.4 percent for his rival, right-wing former interim president Jorge "Tuto" Quiroga, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) said.

Paz, the 58-year-old son of a former president, has vowed a "capitalism for all" approach to economic reform, with decentralization, lower taxes and fiscal discipline mixed with continued social spending.

With dollars and fuel in short supply and annual inflation at more than 20 percent, weary voters snubbed the Movement Toward Socialism party founded by former president Evo Morales in a first electoral round in August.

Bolivia is enduring its worst economic crisis in decades, with long queues now a common sight at gas stations.

"We hope the country improves," homemaker Maria Eugenia Penaranda, 56, said, bundled up against the cold as she cast her vote in La Paz, about 3,600 meters (11,800 feet) above sea level.

"We cannot make ends meet. There is a lot of suffering. Too much," she told AFP.

Sunday's election closes out an economic experiment marked by initial prosperity funded by Morales's nationalization of gas reserves.

The boom was followed by bust, notably critical shortages of fuel and foreign currency under outgoing leader Luis Arce.

Successive governments under-invested in the country's hydrocarbons sector, once the backbone of the economy.

Production plummeted and Bolivia almost depleted its dollar reserves to sustain a universal subsidy for fuel that it also cannot afford to import.

- Patience 'running out' -

Analyst Daniela Osorio of the German Institute for Global and Area Studies told AFP that Bolivians' patience was running out.

Once the election is over, she warned, "if the winner does not take measures to help the most vulnerable, this could lead to a social uprising."

Paz faces an uphill task, inheriting an economy in recession, according to the World Bank.

He had promised to maintain social programs while stabilizing the economy, but economists have said the two things are not possible at the same time.

Like Quiroga, Paz also proposed cutting the universal fuel subsidy, keeping it only for public transportation.

- 'Difficult to heal' -

"If the people of Bolivia grant me the opportunity to be president," Paz said as he voted Sunday, "my format will be that of consensus."

Paz will not have a party majority in Congress, meaning he will need to make concessions to get laws passed.

Outside of Congress, the new president will also face stiff opposition from Morales, who remains popular especially among Indigenous Bolivians, but was constitutionally barred from seeking another term.

On Sunday, Morales told reporters the two candidates each represent only "a handful of people in Bolivia, they do not represent the popular movement, much less the Indigenous movement."

Morales is the target of an arrest warrant for human trafficking over an alleged sexual relationship with a minor -- an accusation he denies.

Arce is due to leave office on November 8 after serving a single presidential term that began in 2020.

Bolivia's constitution allows for two terms, but he did not seek reelection.

Polling stations opened at 8:00 am (1200 GMT) and closed eight hours later. Nearly eight million people were eligible to cast ballots and voting is mandatory.

X.Habash--SF-PST