Bolivia’s presidential election has set the stage for a political transformation, unprecedented in nearly two decades. The preliminary results, which place Senator Rodrigo Paz Pereira in the lead and former president Jorge Quiroga in second position, mark a decisive moment in the country’s democratic journey. A run-off in October will determine the winner, but the real story is already clear: Bolivia’s long-standing experiment with leftist dominance may have run its course. For almost twenty years, the Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS) defined the country’s political landscape.

From Evo Morales’s sweeping rise in 2006 to Luis Arce’s tenure in more recent years, the left’s grip seemed unshakeable. Mr Morales, with his deep grassroots base, positioned himself as the voice of indigenous identity and economic nationalism. Yet over time, the economic dividends of that model withered. Inflation, food and........

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