Bolivia’s upcoming presidential election will mark a shift from nearly two decades of socialist rule, but many Indigenous and environmental leaders doubt it will bring progress in stopping deforestation,

Bolivia’s charismatic, long-serving ex-President Evo Morales told The Associated Press on Saturday that he didn’t know what to do about threats by the right-wing presidential candidates to arrest him if they came to power.

Ex-President Morales is credited with lifting millions out of poverty. But his political ambitions divide the left.

One candidate is Rodrigo Paz, a conservative centrist senator and son of a neoliberal ex-president who is pitching himself as a moderate reformer.

A seismic political shift has taken place in Bolivia. The country’s leftist Movimiento al Socialismo (Mas) party, which has dominated Bolivian politics for nearly 20 years, was voted out of power in a general election on August 17.

Now, on October 19, Bolivians will hold presidential runoff for the first time—an option only introduced in the 2009 Constitution. As voters prepare to pick their next president, AS/COA online looks at dark horse candidate Paz, the collapse of MAS, and the composition of the next national legislature.

Early results in Bolivia's presidential election show the country headed for an unprecedented runoff following a vote in which a dark horse centrist, Sen.

Despite being barred from running again for president and being sought for arrest, a towering figure of Bolivian politics is trying to rally supporters to cast null votes.