section_path: Background
section_name: Background
paragraph_text: Background
  
  The election is being held amid a schism within the ruling Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS) between incumbent president Luis Arce and former president Evo Morales. The former allies fell out following Arce's election in 2020, when Morales, who had been in exile following political unrest caused by his reelection bid in 2019, returned and tried to regain control of the party's leadership. In late 2024 and early 2025, shortages of essential goods – including gasoline, diesel, basic foodstuffs and medicine – caused further dissatisfaction with the Arce government.
  
  Right-leaning political parties formed a Unity Bloc to oppose Arce; its candidates included Samuel Doria Medina and Jorge Quiroga. Morales announced his intention to run as the candidate of the Front for Victory (FPV) despite a ban on him running again for president by the Plurinational Constitutional Tribunal. The government responded by deregistering the FPV, citing its failure to meet the mandatory 3% threshold in the previous election.
  
  On 14 May 2025, President Arce announced that he declined to seek a second term. Government minister Eduardo del Castillo was nominated by MAS in his place. On 16 May, demonstrators attempting to register Morales as a candidate clashed with police in La Paz.
  
  Several candidates, including Quiroga and Chung, attempted to register their campaigns under minor party labels. Quiroga's Revolutionary Left Front (FRI) and Chung's Revolutionary Nationalist Movement (MNR) historically took differing ideological stances from those of their candidates.