1966 Bolivian general election

General elections were held in Bolivia on 3 July 1966. René Barrientos of the Front of the Bolivian Revolution (FRB) was elected president with 67% of the vote, whilst the FRB won a majority in both houses of Congress. James Dunkerley describes the election as not free and fair since a major segment of the opposition was excluded from participating.

Background

Following the 1964 elections, Barrientos had led a military coup to remove Víctor Paz Estenssoro from power. In May 1965, Juan Lechín Oquendo, a labor leader who was the head of the left faction of the Nationalist Revolutionary Movement, was arrested and expelled from the country.

Campaign

Several alliances were formed for the elections:

Alliance	Parties
Christian Democratic Community	Bolivian Socialist Falange
	Democratic Revolutionary Alliance
	National Association of Democratic Professions
Democratic Institutionalist Alliance	Liberal Party
	Republican Socialist Unity Party
Front of the Bolivian Revolution	Authentic Revolutionary Party
	Popular Christian Movement
	Social Democratic Party
	Revolutionary Left Party
Liberation Front of the National Left	Communist Party and others

Results

Party		Presidential candidate	Votes	%	Seats
					Chamber	Senate
	Front of the Bolivian Revolution	René Barrientos	677,805	67.14	82	18
	Christian Democratic Community	Bernardino Bilbao Rioja	138,001	13.67	19	8
	Revolutionary Nationalist Movement–Andrade	Víctor Andrade	88,392	8.76	0	0
	Revolutionary Nationalist Movement of the People	Mario Díez de Medina	60,505	5.99	1	1
	Liberation Front of the National Left	Felipe Iñíguez	33,458	3.31	0	0
	Democratic Institutionalist Alliance	Enrique Hertzog	11,330	1.12	0	0
Total			1,009,491	100.00	102	27
Valid votes			1,009,491	91.77
Invalid/blank votes			90,503	8.23
Total votes			1,099,994	100.00
Registered voters/turnout			1,270,611	86.57
Source: Hofmeister & Bamberger

See also

• Bolivian National Congress, 1966–1969