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Needed to win: two-thirds majority of the votes cast | |||||||||||||||||||
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The 2022 Bolivian ombudsman election took place between 15 March and 23 September 2022 during the term of the 3rd Plurinational Legislative Assembly. This unusual intra-term election for ombudsman of Bolivia was necessitated by the resignation of David Tezanos Pinto on 24 January 2019, leaving Nadia Cruz as the acting authority for more than three years, even exceeding the expiration of Tezanos Pinto's originally set six-year term. This was the sixth ombudsman election since the office was created in 1997. Constitutional lawyer Pedro Callisaya won the contest, receiving ninety-five votes, a two-thirds majority of those present but not of the total membership of both legislative chambers. Callisaya's election was supported only by the ruling Movement for Socialism, while the two opposition blocs boycotted the vote.
This was the longest process for designating an ombudsman in Bolivian history, lasting six months and eight days from the initial call for applicants in mid-March to the final election in late September. Though the ruling party and opposition managed to reach an uncommon agreement to unanimously approve the convocation of the election, disagreements reemerged in the final phase of candidate evaluation due to the qualification of multiple candidates the opposition viewed as too close to the government.
The first two rounds of voting occurred on 5 May, with no candidate reaching the necessary two-thirds threshold to be elected. In the ensuing vote, the ruling party—originally divided between Pedro Callisaya and Porfirio Machado—coalesced around the former, while the centrist Civic Community lent its support to Evelín Cossío and the right-wing Creemos nullified its vote, demanding the process be done over. In the span of five votes over the course of four months, no candidate managed to reach the necessary support to be elected as each parliamentary caucus entrenched themselves in their positions. Finally, on 23 September, the Movement for Socialism called an impromptu vote, taking advantage of the absence of—mostly opposition—parliamentarians from Santa Cruz, who were celebrating the department's anniversary. With the support of two-thirds of those present, Callisaya won the necessary majority to become the next ombudsman.
The 2022 ombudsman election process was wracked by controversy, no less due to the dubious circumstances of Callisaya's final election. Throughout the election, analysts and observers questioned the Movement for Socialism's inclination toward selecting a pro-government ombudsman. The extension of Nadia Cruz's term three years past her original ninety-day acting mandate and a lower court's ruling granting President Luis Arce the ability to unilaterally designate an ombudsman should the legislature fail to were both denounced as a usurpation of functions, with the latter decision setting a precedent for the head of state to potentially designate the country's highest electoral, judicial, and constitutional authorities when their terms expire in 2023.