Bolivia will hold tightly contested general elections on Sunday, 17 August, with 7.9 million citizens eligible to elect a president, vice-president and a new legislature. The government says it will deploy more than 25,000 police officers nationwide to safeguard the vote after reports of possible attempts to undermine the process. Businessman Samuel Doria Medina and former president Jorge Quiroga lead the right-of-centre challenge, polling at 21.2 percent and 20 percent respectively, according to Ipsos-Ciesmori. Senate President Andrónico Rodríguez, the strongest left-wing contender, trails far behind. The fractured Movement Toward Socialism, weakened by a power struggle between President Luis Arce and banned ex-leader Evo Morales, faces the prospect of losing the presidency for the first time in two decades. Morales, facing an arrest order on separate charges, has urged supporters to nullify their ballots in protest. Interior Minister Roberto Ríos warned that factions loyal to the former president could seek to obstruct the vote, while the electoral tribunal has prohibited mobile phones inside voting booths amid allegations of voter coercion. The contenders differ sharply on drug and economic policy. Doria Medina and Quiroga promise aggressive coca-crop eradication and austerity measures to tame inflation that has reached 24.8 percent, whereas Rodríguez defends regulated cultivation for traditional uses and rejects the return of U.S. anti-drug personnel. Analysts say the outcome could alter Bolivia’s stance on cocaine production and reshape ties with regional law-enforcement agencies. An Electoral Observation Mission from the Organisation of American States is stationed in all nine departments and in diaspora polling centres in Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Spain. The mission has called for unhindered participation and condemned any effort to disrupt the vote. Separately, the foreign ministry dismissed a recent U.S. human-rights report as biased and intrusive.