The 2021 El Alto municipal election was held on Sunday, 7 March 2021, to elect the mayor and eleven councillors to the El Alto Municipal Council. Incumbent Mayor Soledad Chapetón was eligible to seek a second term but declined for personal reasons. Fourteen fronts (seven civic groups and seven political parties) presented candidates. In the election, Eva Copa of the Jallalla La Paz civic group handily defeated Movement for Socialism nominee Zacarías Maquera and thirteen other candidates with 68.70% of the vote to become El Alto's mayor.
History
Background
In the 2015 municipal elections, the National Unity Front (UN) displaced the ruling Movement for Socialism (MAS-IPSP) from its political stronghold, winning the mayor's office and six of the eleven seats on the Municipal Council; the MAS took four seats and the Sovereignty and Liberty (SOL.bo) civic group won one.
As with all other departmental, provincial, and municipal elected officials, the set term of incumbent Mayor Soledad Chapetón and the Municipal Council was due to expire in mid-2020, completing a five-year mandate started in 2015. However, due to the annulment of the 2019 general election as a result of that year's political crisis and the delay of the rerun elections to October 2020, the terms of subnational authorities were extended by one year.
Political groups and campaigns
Movement for Socialism
Pre-candidates
A total of sixteen individuals appeared on the party's published list of pre-candidates considered for the nomination by the MAS: Wilma Alanoca, former El Alto councillor and minister of cultures Sergio Choque, former deputy and president of the Chamber of Deputies Eva Copa, former senator and president of the Chamber of Senators Emilio Gutiérrez, former constituent of the Constituent Assembly Gerardo Itapullu, union leader Claudio Luna, member of FEJUVE Abel Mamani, former minister of water Rodolfo Mancilla, union leader Zacarías Maquera, former El Alto councillor and acting mayor of El Alto Lucio Marca, former deputy Mabel Monje, former minister of environment and water Rubén Paz, president of FEJUVE Javier Quispe, former deputy mayor of El Alto and former deputy Daniel Ramos, union leader Basilio Villasanti, member of FEJUVE Rudy Luis Alberto Yampa, representative of COREMPAF
Selection process
According to David Apaza, regional president of the MAS in El Alto, retaking control of one of the party's historic strongholds was of vital importance in order to coordinate the city's administration with the government. Within the MAS, pre-candidates seeking the nomination are analyzed and elected by party leaders in conjunction with regional social organizations. No less than twenty-two pre-candidates were put forward for consideration. Among social organizations, union and social leaders such as Emilio Gutiérrez, Gerardo Itapallu, Claudio Luna, Rodolfo Mancilla, Rubén Paz, Daniel Ramos, Basilio Villasanti, and Rudy Luis Alberto Yampa, among others, were those presented. Additionally, former legislators Lucio Marca and Javier Quispe and former ministers Wilma Alanoca and Mabel Monje were considered.
Among the main contenders were former senator Eva Copa and former deputy Sergio Choque, each of whom had been presidents of their respective chambers in the outgoing assembly, as well as Zacarías "Ratuki " Maquera, former acting mayor of El Alto, and Abel Mamani, former minister of water. Choque campaigned on his long experience within El Alto, first as a prominent trade unionist in the city and then as a deputy in the Legislative Assembly for one of its districts. He assured that "I know the fourteen districts, I know their demands and I could immediately give answers". Mamani, meanwhile, was close to national leaders within the party but failed to garner support from local MAS blocs who accused him of not coordinating with social organizations and presenting his candidacy without support of the bases. The candidates that received the most local support were Copa —especially among younger party members— and Maquera, who was endorsed by various unions.
Finally, on 26 December 2020, MAS leader Rodolfo Machaca announced that, after a series of meetings in El Alto, the party had successfully reached a consensus on its mayoral candidate. Machaca stated that, in the election, the finalists were Wilma Alanoca, Daniel Ramos, Eva Copa, and Zacarías Maquera, and that all of the remaining pre-candidates, with the exception of Copa, who abstained from voting, gave their support for Maquera.