MADRID, 21 (EUROPA PRESS)
Bolivian President Luis Arce has announced that he will convene meetings with the two candidates who won the first round of the presidential elections, Rodrigo Paz and Jorge "Tuto" Quiroga, to receive firsthand information on the country's economic situation and coordinate the transition.
"We want to show you the economic situation we are going through," Arce announced in a media appearance in which he explicitly alluded to the fuel crisis, with shortages and high prices that have already led to citizen demonstrations and riots in recent months.
The goal, according to Arce, is for "whichever option wins to address this problem," although he asserted that he has not yet heard any "concrete proposals for a solution" from either of the two candidates who will face off in the runoff on October 19.
"We're going to present the information to them so that they can also see, in a democratic and open manner on the part of the national government, everything we're going through so that they're fully involved in what they have to face," he added, according to the official news agency ABI.
Paz triumphed unexpectedly in the first round of elections held last Sunday, obtaining more than 32.1 percent of the vote. However, she will face Quiroga in the runoff, who obtained just over 26.6 percent. Both represent a shift in the political cycle in a Bolivia dominated by the left for most of the last two decades.
Arce, who was not running for reelection, admitted that, as a leftist activist, he does not feel represented by either of the two options represented at the polls. "We are going to abstain from voting," he announced, also noting that the government will not support any specific candidate because the final decision rests with the Bolivian people.
Regarding his future once he passes the baton of power on November 8, Arce did want to make it clear that he does not plan to leave Bolivia, emphasizing that he has not committed any crime. "My family is here, my friends are here, my source of income is here, which is the university," he explained.
The outgoing president plans to return to university teaching and has already confirmed that, although he will travel to Brazil in October, it will be a scheduled visit to undergo his annual medical checkup after being diagnosed with kidney cancer in 2017.
