Bolivia postpones elections as it braces for coronavirus spike

Bolivia will postpone its general elections until October 18 as the country's coronavirus outbreak shows no signs of relenting, the electoral authority announced on Thursday.

"We can not go to the elections without sufficient precautions, nor can we use this very serious drama, pain and mourning of the pandemic as a pretext to annul or indefinitely postpone the elections," said  Salvador Romero Ballivián, President of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE).

Calls had multiplied for the postponement of the elections as the pandemic is expected to spike between July and September.

Bolivia on Wednesday confirmed 64,135 novel coronavirus infections, up 1,778 in 24 hours, and a total of 2,328 deaths.

Interim President Jeanine Anez and nearly a third of her cabinet have tested positive for COVID-19, while the health system and the burial of the dead have come under great strain.

The TSE noted that the election date had "generated bitter controversies that have divided the country."

The postponement is already the second for the elections, which were initially due in May.

They will be a rerun of the poll held about a year earlier, in which Evo Morales, the Andean country's leftist president of 13 years, claimed another victory.

Widespread allegations of fraud sparked weeks of violent protests that forced Bolivia's first indigenous president to go into exile, while Añez took power as interim president.