Entre Ríos/La Paz, Aug. 17 (EFE) – Presidential candidate and Senate Speaker Andrónico Rodríguez was stoned and booed by a mob on Sunday, shortly after he voted in Cochabamba, the political and union stronghold of former President Evo Morales (2006-2019), where he is considered a “traitor” for running on his own.
Rodríguez voted at the José Carrasco school in the Entre Ríos municipality in the Cochabamba Tropics.
As the candidate was about to speak to the journalists, people in the precinct began throwing stones at him, as EFE witnessed.
Rodríguez was unable to make any statements and left the polling station in a waiting vehicle, which was also hit by stones while the mob shouted “traitor.”
Prior to this incident, witnesses reported a loud bang in the backyard of the José Carrasco school, after which police from the Special Force Against Crime (Felcc) arrived to investigate.
Juan Carlos Campero, the prosecutor in charge of the case, told local media that there was no material or personal damage and that voting was taking place normally.
Rodríguez, 36, is the best-positioned leftist candidate in the polls, ranked between third and fourth place.
Opposition candidate Samuel Doria Medina of the Unity Alliance and former president Jorge “Tuto” Quiroga (2001–2002) of the Free Alliance are leading the polls and could dispute a second round.
Rodríguez, the candidate of the Popular Alliance, was considered the political heir of Evo Morales. However, he decided to run on his own, and the former president described him as a “traitor.”
Morales is not participating in these elections due to a constitutional provision that prevents him from running again because he has already served three terms as president. He does not have a political party, so he promoted a protest vote via null ballots.
The campaign for the null vote was intense in the Tropic of Cochabamba, and people in Entre Ríos warned that they would burn the ballot boxes if this option was not the majority in that zone.
More than 7.5 million Bolivians are eligible to vote in the presidential, vice presidential, and parliamentary elections, and an additional 369,308 citizens will cast their votes abroad.
The elections are taking place amid a severe economic crisis marked by dollar and fuel shortages, and the highest inflation in decades. EFE
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