Añez, who was appointed by the army after it forced just re-elected president Evo Morales from power last November, said she was withdrawing “to ensure there is a winner who defends democracy” against Morales’s Movement for Socialism (MAS), which all polls continue to show in first place.

Polls this week showed that MAS candidate Luis Arce would win in the first round with 38.5 per cent of the vote, less than Morales’s 47 per cent first-round win last year, which the opposition refused to accept.

But the showing would avoid a second round run-off because it is more than 10 points ahead of any other candidate, with former president Carlos Mesa in second place on 12.9 per cent.

Fascist paramilitary leader and millionaire Luis Camacho, who organized the violent riots that preceded the army putsch last winter and famously stormed the presidential palace during the coup, tearing down the Pachamama emblem of Indigenous Bolivians, is in third place.

Añez did not endorse either but said the right should unite behind one candidate.

But Morales, who has been banned from standing, said: “Añez and her government are in freefall. On October 18, we will recover democracy and defeat the crisis.”

Bolivia’s ombudsman published a report on Thursday pointing to “crimes against humanity” committed by Añez’s government, which killed scores of mostly Indigenous protesters against Morales’s overthrow in its first weeks.

It records that police arrested large numbers simply for demonstrating against the coup, details cases in which individual MAS supporters were tortured or killed, and describes an “execution” of 20 people in Sacaba and Senkata on the outskirts of La Paz.

These crimes were “systematically committed against the civilian population under the knowledge of, orders and instructions issued by the transitional government.”

Morales suggested that in the context of the report Añez’s withdrawal from the race could be motivated by her need to “negotiate impunity” for her government’s crimes as well as to unite the right.

From exile in Buenos Aires, former leftist president Evo Morales continues to influence Bolivian politics and is plotting his party's return to power in next month’s Presidential polls..

Though banned from running in the poll and facing arrest if he returns, the 60-year-old — Bolivia's first indigenous president — is masterminding opposition to right-wing interim leader Jeanine Anez.

"At this time when Evo Morales is in exile, outside of power, he has become a kind of kingmaker..

Morales last year hand-picked economist Luis Arce as the man who can win back the presidency for his Movement for Socialism (MAS) party.

To do so he faced down grassroots members who favored former foreign minister David Choquehuanca or young coca-growers' leader Andronico Rodriguez.

Arce, however, has slowly won over the doubters and is riding high in opinion polls, which if confirmed in the October 18 elections, would hand the presidency back to MAS a year after Morales' tumultuous resignation.

Maria Teresa Zegada, a sociologist at the state-run Universidad Mayor de San Simon, says Morales is a key player in the electoral campaign, despite his absence. "I believe that he will continue to play an important role, as long as he continues to be a polarizing factor in the country's politics. There are important sectors that support MAS and that is where Morales' presence lies." Ahead of the pandemic, the ex-president frequently convened meetings with MAS leaders in Argentina, but that direct communication has been frustrated by the pandemic lockdowns.

These days he issues instructions via social media. "We will come back stronger and we will restore freedom and dignity to the Bolivian people," said a message on his Twitter account. Morales earlier condemned what he said was an attempt by Anez to get the courts to outlaw his party and remove Arce from the electoral race. "The de facto government initiated a judicial strategy with political ends to disqualify our candidate and MAS and prevent us from participating in the elections," he tweeted.

Anez has accused Morales of conspiring to damage her electoral chances by sending overpriced Spanish ventilators for COVID-19 patients into the country as part of a relief operation during the pandemic. Zegada said Morales has benefited from the errors and scandals that have tainted his adversaries in power. (IPA Service)