The ruling Nationalist Revolutionary Movement Party defused a political crisis Wednesday when it backed down from its demand that last month's national elections be annulled.
The ruling party's presidential candidate, Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, edged out former military dictator Hugo Banzer in official results of the May 7 election. But none of the nine candidates received more than 50 percent of the vote, and Congress will have to choose the country's next president when it meets in August.Banzer and Jaime Paz Zamora, the left's candidate, apparently have put aside ideological differences to reach an accord that would allow the two disparate forces to unite and elect Banzer as president.
The ruling Nationalist Revolutionary Movement Party, or MPR, has held power since the election of current President Victor Paz Estenssoro in 1985. The MPR had protested the latest election results, announced Sunday, and asked the Supreme Court to annul them, plunging the nation into a political crisis.
In an apparent turnaround Wednesday, MPR party chief Guillermo Bedregal said the annulment of the election "is not the best road to take." He said the party was willing to settle the conflict through "harmony and dialogue."