1997 Bolivian general election

General elections were held in Bolivia on 1 June 1997.^[1] As no candidate for the presidency received over 50% of the vote, the National Congress was required to elect a president on 4 August. Hugo Banzer of Nationalist Democratic Action (ADN) was subsequently elected. Whilst the ADN emerged as the largest party in Congress, it failed to win a majority of seats, and formed a coalition government with the Revolutionary Left Movement, Conscience of Fatherland and the Solidarity Civic Unity.^[2]

1997 Bolivian general election

← 1993 1 June 1997 2002 →
Registered	3,252,501
Turnout	71.36% ( 0.80pp)
Presidential election
Nominee Hugo Banzer Juan Carlos Durán Remedios Loza Party ADN–PDC–NFR MNR CONDEPA Running mate Jorge Quiroga Percy Fernández [es] Gonzalo Ruiz Paz Popular vote 484,705 396,235 373,528 Percentage 22.26% 18.20% 17.16%   Nominee Jaime Paz Zamora Ivo Kuljis Party MIR–FRI UCS Running mate Samuel Doria Medina Juan Chahín Popular vote 365,005 350,728 Percentage 16.77% 16.11%
Results by department Results by province
President before election Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada MNR Elected President Hugo Banzer ADN
Chamber of Deputies
All 130 seats in the Chamber of Deputies
Party Seats +/– ADN–PDC–NFR 32 −3 MNR 26 −26 MIR–FRI 23 +23 UCS 21 +1 CONDEPA 19 +6 MBL 5 −2 IU 4 +4 This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.
Chamber of Senators
All 36 seats in the Chamber of Senators
Party Seats +/– ADN–PDC–NFR 11 +3 MIR–FRI 7 +7 MNR 4 −13 CONDEPA 3 +2 UCS 2 −5 This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.

Electoral system

Main article: Elections in Bolivia

A number of electoral reforms were introduced in 1994. The double simultaneous vote (DSV) system, under which voters cast a single vote for president, Chamber of Deputies and Chamber of Senators, was modified to introduce a mixed-member proportional representation for the Chamber of Deputies. Voters still had a DSV vote that determined the presidency, members of the Chamber of Senators and the seat distribution of the Chamber of Deputies, but had an additional vote to determine the winners of 68 single-member constituencies for the Chamber. The other 62 seats in the Chamber became leveling seats to ensure that the proportion of seats held by each party was equivalent to the percentage of its vote share in the DSV vote, and were elected by closed list proportional representation in nine multi-member constituencies. A further reform in 1997, shortly before the elections, introduced a 3% electoral threshold and determined that seat allocation for the proportional Chamber seats would be carried out by the d'Hondt method. The 27 seats in the Chamber of Senators were elected in nine three-member constituencies using the DSV vote; the party with the most votes was awarded two seats and the runner-up one.^[3]

As a result of modifications to the constitution in 1994 and 1995, the voting age was reduced to eighteen, while presidential and congressional terms were increased from four to five years.^[4]

Campaign

Incumbent president Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada chose René Blattmann, minister of justice and human rights, as the MNR's presidential candidate. Blattmann's reformations to the judicial system had gained him great popularity among the population with him holding a 34% electoral preference to Hugo Banzer's 14% upon the announcement of his candidacy in December 1996. However, René Blattmann surprisingly renounced his candidacy at the end of January 1997. Juan Carlos Durán became the new MNR candidate but the damage to the party's electoral campaign was irreversible.^[5]

Hugo Banzer, who had run in the past five elections, had stated in 1993 that he would not present himself again as a candidate. Nevertheless, Banzer announced his 1997 candidacy anyway. Former president Jaime Paz Zamora of the MIR also announced his intention to seek a second term.^[5]

The "neo-populist" Max Fernández of the UCS and Carlos Palenque of CONDEPA had seen their parties' best performances in 1993. However, the premature death of both leaders hurt their parties' chances of winning. Jhonny Fernández, Max Fernández's son, was not yet of legal age to run leading the UCS to present as their candidate Ivo Kuljis Fuchner. Interestingly, Fuchner had been Carlos Palenque's CONDEPA running mate in 1993. CONDEPA, in turn, presented Remedios Loza, the first female presidential candidate in Bolivia history. The fact that Loza was Aymara won her some support among Bolivia's marginalized indigenous population.^[6]

Economic and social issues dominated the campaign, with all major parties promising to continue the free market policies implemented by outgoing President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada. Whilst Juan Carlos Durán emphasised the free market reforms, Hugo Banzer promised to improve the lives of the indigenous population.^[2]

Results

President

Ultimately, the divided electoral field and the woes of the MNR resulted in Hugo Banzer claiming a narrow plurality vote victory of 22.26%, the lowest margin of victory for any presidential candidate in Bolivian history.

As no candidate reached the required 50% majority, the National Congress convened to elect the president. Members of both chambers voted on the president. Banzer was supported by his ADN-NFR-PDC political alliance as well as by the MIR, CONDEPA, and UCS. Juan Carlos Durán would only receive the support of the MNR. The four IU and five MBL deputies abstained.

Candidate		Running mate	Party	Popular vote		Congressional vote
				Votes	%	Votes	%
	Hugo Banzer	Jorge Quiroga	ADN–PDC–NFR	484,705	22.26	118	79.73
	Juan Carlos Durán	Percy Fernández [es]	Revolutionary Nationalist Movement	396,235	18.20	30	20.27
	Remedios Loza	Gonzalo Ruiz Paz	Conscience of Fatherland	373,528	17.16
	Jaime Paz Zamora	Samuel Doria Medina	Revolutionary Left Movement	365,005	16.77
	Ivo Kuljis Fuchner	Juan Chahín	Solidarity Civic Unity	350,728	16.11
	Alejo Véliz	Marcos Domic Ruiz	United Left	80,806	3.71
	Miguel Urioste Fernández	Marcial Fabricano	Free Bolivia Movement	67,244	3.09
	Jerjes Justiniano Talavera	Sonia Montaño Ferrufino	Bolivian Socialist Vanguard	30,212	1.39
	Ramiro Barrenechea	Juan de la Cruz Villca Choque	Patriotic Convergence Axis	18,327	0.84
	Eudoro Galindo	Ángel Cardona Ayoroa	Bolivian Democratic Party	10,381	0.48
Total				2,177,171	100.00	148	100.00
Valid votes				2,177,171	93.80	148	100.00
Invalid/blank votes				143,946	6.20	0	0.00
Total votes				2,321,117	100.00	148	100.00
Registered voters/turnout				3,252,501	71.36	157	94.27
Source: Nohlen

Chamber of Deputies

Party		Proportional			Constituency			Total seats	+/–
		Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats
	ADN–PDC–NFR	484,705	22.26	14	457,470	22.16	18	32	–
	Revolutionary Nationalist Movement	396,235	18.20	14	368,777	17.86	12	26	–26
	Conscience of Fatherland	373,528	17.16	7	289,828	14.04	12	19	+6
	Revolutionary Left Movement	365,005	16.77	11	358,004	17.34	12	23	–
	Solidarity Civic Unity	350,728	16.11	16	290,472	14.07	5	21	+1
	United Left	80,806	3.71	0	81,001	3.92	4	4	+4
	Free Bolivia Movement	67,244	3.09	0	130,095	6.30	5	5	–2
	Bolivian Socialist Vanguard	30,212	1.39	0	34,034	1.65	0	0	New
	Patriotic Convergence Axis	18,327	0.84	0	32,493	1.57	0	0	New
	Bolivian Democratic Party	10,381	0.48	0	22,079	1.07	0	0	New
Total		2,177,171	100.00	62	2,064,253	100.00	68	130	0
Valid votes		2,177,171	93.80		2,064,253	89.12
Invalid votes		67,203	2.90		52,452	2.26
Blank votes		76,743	3.31		199,496	8.61
Total votes		2,321,117	100.00		2,316,201	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		3,252,501	71.36		3,252,501	71.21
Source: Nohlen, OEP, Election Passport, FUNDEMOS

Chamber of Senators

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	ADN–PDC–NFR	484,705	22.26	11	–
	Revolutionary Nationalist Movement	396,235	18.20	4	–13
	Conscience of Fatherland	373,528	17.16	3	+2
	Revolutionary Left Movement	365,005	16.77	7	–
	Solidarity Civic Unity	350,728	16.11	2	+1
	United Left	80,806	3.71	0	0
	Free Bolivia Movement	67,244	3.09	0	0
	Bolivian Socialist Vanguard	30,212	1.39	0	New
	Patriotic Convergence Axis	18,327	0.84	0	New
	Bolivian Democratic Party	10,381	0.48	0	New
Total		2,177,171	100.00	27	0
Valid votes		2,177,171	93.80
Invalid/blank votes		143,946	6.20
Total votes		2,321,117	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		3,252,501	71.36
Source: Nohlen

See also

• Bolivian National Congress, 1997–2002