Departmental elections in Bolivia (2010–2021): Between regionalised and third-order elections¹

Abstract

Bolivia has held elections to departmental governments in 2010, 2015, and in 2021. This election report starts with an overview of the electoral systems applied in the nine regions and subsequently discusses the election outcomes for the three elections. Regional elections in Bolivia can be conceived to be both regionalised – suggested by increasing vote shares for regional parties – as well as to be third-order elections – suggested by having lower turnout rates than local and national elections. First, this election report will explore the extent to which regional elections are regionalised by looking at dissimilarity between party vote shares between elections and at the strength of regional parties. The question of whether regional elections are second or third-order is explored by looking at valid voting rates and vote share losses for the party in the national government.