Bolivia to vote in presidential runoff that will turn it to the right

A staff member at the electoral logistics distribution centre in La Paz. Whoever takes office on 8 November will face the country’s worst economic crisis in four decades. Photograph: Martin Bernetti/AFP/Getty Images

Bolivians go to the polls on Sunday in an election that, whatever the result, will mark a complete shift to the right after nearly 20 years under the rule of the leftist Movimiento al Socialismo (Mas).

The country’s first-ever presidential runoff pits the centre-right senator Rodrigo Paz Pereira, 58, who won the first round in August, against the rightwing former president Jorge “Tuto” Quiroga, 65, who in recent weeks has overtaken Paz Pereira in the polls.