BOLIVIAN President Luis Arce has said that he won’t stand for re-election after opinion polls pointed to him suffering a humiliating defeat in August’s election if he continued to seek a second term.

The decision, announced in a lengthy televised address late on Tuesday, comes amid a deepening rift at the top of Bolivia’s governing Movement for Socialism (MAS) party as Mr Arce and his erstwhile ally, former president Evo Morales, struggle for control.

“I will not be a factor in dividing the popular vote,” Mr Arce, who took power in 2020, said in Tuesday night’s speech, warning that a fragmented base would give Bolivia’s right-wing parties a shot at power after nearly two decades of socialist rule, interrupted by the coup government that ruled for a year from 2019.