The Departmental Electoral Tribunal of La Paz (TED La Paz) and the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE), in coordination with ECES, held the Departmental Meeting “Towards Electoral Reform” o in La Paz, as part of the national process of consultation, analysis and participatory development of proposals aimed at strengthening Bolivia’s electoral system.
The La Paz meeting was the fourth departmental meeting held in the country as part of this process. Previous dialogue and consultation events had already taken place in Santa Cruz, Chuquisaca and Potosí, progressively consolidating a territorial consultation process designed to incorporate departmental experiences, priorities and perspectives into the national Electoral Reform agenda.
The meeting brought together authorities from the Plurinational Electoral Body, representatives of political organizations and civil society, Indigenous Peoples and Nations, academic institutions, labor organizations, women’s organizations, citizen groups and other stakeholders from the department.
The objective was to discuss, collect and systematize proposals aimed at updating Bolivia’s electoral legislation, procedures and institutional framework.
During the opening session, the President of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, Gustavo Ávila, highlighted the need to move forward with electoral reform based on the lessons learned from the 2025–2026 electoral cycle. He also emphasized the importance of maintaining an open, plural and participatory process capable of incorporating criticism, recommendations and proposals from different territories and sectors of society.
The meeting also included the participation of the TSE Vice-Presidency and members of the Tribunal’s Plenary Chamber, together with authorities of TED La Paz, reinforcing the institutional and national character of the reform process.
Technical discussions were organized around five main areas: legal certainty and electoral certainty; political organizations; electoral register and public confidence; parity, political violence and inclusive participation; and electoral campaigns and disinformation.
These thematic working groups helped structure the challenges identified by participants and focused the discussion on the development of concrete proposals for Electoral Reform.
Among the issues that received particular attention were women’s political participation, parity and the prevention of political harassment and violence. Women’s organizations presented assessments and recommendations based on recent electoral experiences, highlighting the need to strengthen mechanisms that guarantee effective parity, alternation and the full exercise of women’s political rights throughout the electoral process.
During the opening session, electoral authorities expressed their appreciation for the technical and financial support provided by ECES, through the PRO-Elección Bolivia project, which has contributed to the development of the methodology, the organization of departmental meetings and the systematization of the inputs generated throughout the process.
The support of the European Union, which finances the PRO-Elección Bolivia project through the Foreign Policy Instruments (FPI), was also acknowledged. This support enables ECES to provide technical assistance to the Plurinational Electoral Body and to accompany the national dialogue and consultation process on Electoral Reform.
Cooperation between the Electoral Body, ECES and the European Union through FPI has contributed to establishing a common methodology for the departmental meetings, facilitating the identification of problems, the development of proposals and their subsequent systematization from both territorial and national perspectives.
Following the opening session, ECES representatives held an evaluation meeting with TSE President Gustavo Ávila and the TSE members attending the event to review the progress achieved so far and assess the departmental consultation process.
During the meeting, participants positively assessed the participatory process currently underway and highlighted that, with the La Paz event, the consultation process had already reached four of Bolivia’s nine departments: Santa Cruz, Chuquisaca, Potosí and La Paz.
This progress also made it possible to conduct an initial comparative assessment of the experiences in the different departments, identifying strengths, lessons learned and areas that could be improved in the forthcoming meetings.
As a result of the exchange, several adjustments were made to the methodology proposed by ECES, with the aim of improving the operation of the working groups, facilitating the formulation of concrete proposals and strengthening the systematization and comparability of contributions received from each department.
The joint evaluation also highlighted the value of combining previously developed technical analyses and background materials with participatory territorial discussions, enabling departmental meetings to build on work already completed and focus the debate on concrete and viable reform proposals.
The contributions generated in Santa Cruz, Chuquisaca, Potosí and La Paz will be systematised together with the results of the forthcoming departmental meetings in order to identify common priorities, territorial specificities and key issues for the development of a national Electoral Reform agenda.
Once the consultation and systematisation process is completed, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal plans to consolidate the proposals and move forward with their presentation and discussion before the relevant State institutions.
The fourth departmental meeting, held in La Paz, therefore represents a further step forward in the progressive development of Electoral Reform in Bolivia, strengthening dialogue among the Electoral Body, political organisations, civil society and other strategic stakeholders.
ECES, through the PRO-Elección Bolivia project and with funding from the European Union through the Foreign Policy Instruments (FPI), will continue to provide technical assistance to the Plurinational Electoral Body, supporting the methodology, the systematization of proposals and the development of technical inputs aimed at strengthening confidence, transparency, inclusion and legal certainty within Bolivia’s electoral system.
