Bolivia seemed to be facing a problem we Americans know all too well. COVID-19 took over 8,000 lives, according to the Associated Press, and no policies would get through because of divisions in the government. The wants of politicians outweighed the needs of the people.
On Oct. 18, Bolivia held its presidential election, with its two primary candidates being the right-wing interim President Jeanine Áñez and left-wing candidate Luis Arce. Áñez replaced the previous president Evo Morales, who resigned, and Arce is running in the same party as Morales, the “Movement Toward Socialism” (MAS) party.
This election was unprecedented; after Morales was essentially forced to resign by his people, he put forward Arce as the candidate he wanted for the MAS party. Because of the seeming contempt of the military and his people toward him, it would seem that his candidate would be ignored or ostracized.
The Morales presidency was always in question because of seeming tampering with the results. Many people discredited him and his party for interference in past elections. Therefore, this election, they had fact checkers from the United Nations and other international organizations to ensure a safe and reliable election.
In the end, Morales’ candidate won with no evidence of fraud.
Our country faces a similar problem of intervention. Since the 2016 election, organizations have found tampering that would lead us to believe that Russia and possibly China are both attempting to interfere with our democratic process.
We need a similar intervention to ensure that our democracy remains intact. Candidates would have us believe that the election is only tampered with if he loses or runs behind in the popular vote. We need to make sure that he and everyone else know that the election isn’t being tampered with either way.