Due to the severe challenges that occurred in the previous general elections, the upcoming electoral processes in Bolivia entail significant risks to credibility and trust in the electoral process and potential episodes of electoral conflict and violence, particularly during critical periods leading up to (the election campaign), during (polls) and following the elections (results management and announcement). The upcoming 2025 general elections follow a challenged and forceful electoral process in 2019 and 2020, which resulted in the annulment of the 2019 general elections and reran elections in 2020. While Bolivia’s electoral process has positively advanced over the last two decades, including features such as the paritarian representation, primary elections, biometric voter roll or the transmission of results, the annulment of the 2019 polls and the following demonstrations and violence across the country have diminished the public’s confidence in their electoral process and its administration and exacerbated long-standing, electoral conflicts.

Despite violent incidents and restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 18 October 2020 repeat general elections were credible and reflected the people's free will. The elections granted much-needed legitimacy to a new Government and Legislative Assembly. Overall, according to international observation, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) administered the elections impartially, professionally, and efficiently. The significant contenders accepted the results, yet broad sectors of the population remained sceptical about the performance and outcome of the electoral process.

Nevertheless, the current electoral process tests the Bolivian democratic system. Regional, political, economic, ethnic and social tensions might surge if the upcoming 2025-2026 electoral process does not improve the lingering lack of public trust in electoral processes and the impartiality of institutions across the country. Potential and sensitive flashpoints that may trigger conflict include all the critical stages of the electoral management cycle. There is a need to boost the confidence and peacefulness among vital electoral stakeholders by increasing the integrity, transparency and strategic communication of the critical steps of the electoral process. Past challenges have altered the Bolivian electoral process, starting with the judicial elections scheduled for 1 December 2024. The legislative has submitted a draft law proposing an Exceptional and Transitional Regime for Primary Elections for the Plurinational Legislative Assembly, prioritising the election of judicial authorities whose mandates cannot be extended further and suggesting that the standard primary elections be held.

In 2025, the call for general elections is expected to occur in February/March, with a general elections poll scheduled tentatively for 17 August. Subnational elections are expected in February or March of 2026. Nevertheless, the current TSE legal mandate expires on 19 December 2025, amidst the 2025-2026 electoral cycle management, which, whether its mandate is (self) extended or not, might fuel political instability or delay the subnational polls.

Against this backdrop, ECES has designed a multi-stakeholder intervention based on the challenges and lessons learned from past polls, the applicable recommendations from EU and OAS election missions, the views, needs, and priorities gathered from key electoral stakeholders by an in-country identification mission that occurred in October 2024, and the global expertise of ECES delivering a holistic, modular, targeted electoral assistance package.