Bolivia heads into an Oct. 19 runoff between centrist Rodrigo Paz Pereira and right-wing ex-president Jorge “Tuto” Quiroga after nearly 20 years of socialist rule.

STORY: Early official results in Bolivia show the country's ruling leftists on track for their worst defeat in a generation.Instead the electoral tribunal says centrist senator Rodrigo Paz of the Christian Democratic Party is leading the election late Sunday.

Senator Rodrigo Paz, the surprise top finisher in Bolivia's first-round presidential election, spent years traveling the country, posting hundreds of social media videos and honing his image like a fu

Early official result showed the ruling Movement for Socialism (MAS) on track for its worst election defeat in a generation.

Now, on October 19, Bolivians will hold presidential runoff for the first time—an option only introduced in the 2009 Constitution. As voters prepare to pick their next president, AS/COA online looks at dark horse candidate Paz, the collapse of MAS, and the composition of the next national legislature.

Early exit polls in Bolivia's presidential election on Sunday showed Centrist Senator Rodrigo Paz of the Christian Democratic Party leading, with the ruling Movement for Socialism party on track to suffer its worst electoral defeat in a generation.

Bolivia's presidential election is heading to a runoff after Sunday's vote ended over two decades of ruling party dominance

Bolivia is set to elect a non-left wing president after nearly two decades of near-continuous rule by the incumbent socialist party, according to official preliminary results. Senator Rodrigo Paz Pereira and former president Jorge Quiroga came in first and second place respectively in Sunday's presidential elections.

Centrist senator Rodrigo Paz was leading Bolivia's presidential election, according to early official results, which showed the ruling Movement for Socialism on track for its worst election defeat in a generation.

Bolivians were headed for an unprecedented runoff presidential election following a vote Sunday in which a dark horse centrist, Sen. Rodrigo Paz, drew more votes than the right-wing front-runners, although not enough to secure an outright victory,

A well-known figure in Bolivian politics, Jorge "Tuto" Quiroga, 65, is a conservative candidate representing the Alianza Libre coalition. He briefly served as president from 2001 to 2002 and has worked as an IMF consultant and a mining executive.

Early official results in Bolivia showed the centrist Rodrigo Paz of the Christian Democratic Party leading Sunday's presidential race, with a surprise 32.04% of the vote according to the country's electoral tribunal.