After this year’s regional elections President Evo Morales’ ruling Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS) will control six of Bolivia’s nine departments - Chuquisaca, Cochabamba, Oruro, Potosí, Pando and Beni - the same number it won in the last departmental and gubernatorial elections which took place in April 2010. Gubernatorial run-off contests took place on 3 May in the eastern departments of Beni and Tarija, delivering an unprecedented victory for the MAS in the former and an anticipated defeat in the latter. The slim margin of victory for the MAS in Beni, the only of the country’s nine departments in which President Morales failed to win a majority vote in the October 2014 general election, has reignited concerns about the independence of the supreme electoral court (TSE). These doubts have intensified following the suspension this month of two TSE judges accused of ties to the ruling party.End of preview - This article contains approximately 1567 words.
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