Bolivia

The president (head of state) is directly elected for a 5-year term in a two-round system. The first round is held concurrently with the legislative elections via a single-choice vote and the two candidates with the most votes advance to the second round if no one receives a majority (more than half of the valid votes, 50%+) in the first round.

A president can be re-elected once (whether consecutively or not), so a person can be president for a maximum of 2 terms in total, i.e. 10 years. 

The legislature is bicameral.

House of Representatives

The 130-member lower house is elected under a regional mixed proportional representation (MMP) system.

63 representatives are elected in single-member constituencies, and 60 from regional closed-lists (i.e. the individual-list ratio is 54%/46%). The closed list means that voters can vote for a party list, but not for candidates within it, so they cannot change the predetermined order of candidates. However, the party-list vote itself is linked to the first round of the presidential election in such a way that it is not possible to vote for a party list other than the party of the presidential candidate chosen by the voter: i.e. votes cast for presidential candidates are counted as party-list votes.

In single-member districts, the election uses a single-round, choose-one plurality rule, i.e. first-preference plurality (FPP) or first-past-the-post (FPTP).

The legal threshold for the list seats is 3% nationwide, and the D'Hondt method is used to allocate seats between parties in districts, which favors the larger parties. List seats are allocated by taking into account constituency seats won by parties, i.e. using the principle of seat linkage compensation, which makes the system mixed proportional.

7 seats are reserved for the representation of indigenous peoples, who are elected separately. 

House of Senators

The 36-member upper house is elected under a regional party-list proportional representation system, with each of the 9 regions electing 4 senators. Seats are allocated based on the D'Hondt method and votes cast in the first round of the presidential election (there is no separate vote for senators). 

This is the description of the electoral system of Bolivia as of 01.08.2026 on Electoral Knowledgebase. Sources and further information on this topic:

• Election Passport - Bolivia

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