Twenty people were arrested and three officers were injured in Bolivia Thursday after supporters of former president Evo Morales, who has been barred from running for office again, clashed with law enforcement, police said.
Demonstrators have been pushing for the indigenous leader to be allowed to participate in August elections, urging electoral authorities in La Paz to act despite a court ruling barring him from taking part and the fact that the May 19 registration deadline has passed.
On Thursday, Morales’s supporters threw stones and firecrackers at police, who responded with tear gas, according to images broadcast by local media.
Police chief Roger Montano told reporters that 20 people were arrested and three officers were injured in the confrontations.
Tensions mounted Thursday after a representative of the Bolivian National Action Party (Pan-Bol), which backs Morale’s candidacy, was prevented from entering the Supreme Electoral Tribunal to present the party’s list of candidates.
Officials say Pan-Bol failed to register Morales’s candidacy on deadline through a designated digital platform, but the party insists they sent their application before deadline via email.
The Supreme Electoral Tribunal does not consider that a proper submission.
Morales, one of Latin America’s longest-serving leaders, governing in three periods until he resigned under a cloud in 2019 after seeking to extend his 13-year grip on power.
He was barred from running for office again after the Constitutional Court in 2023 upheld Bolivia’s constitutional two-term limit, which Morales previously managed to evade.
