Bolivia increases virus measures for elections

ANKARA

Bolivia's Supreme Electoral Court (TSE) said Wednesday it is taking additional measures to ensure safe voting in elections in September amid the coronavirus pandemic.

"We are going to have protection elements for all the actors that will participate on voting day and also elements of social distance," TSE President Salvador Romero said in an interview with the Cadena A news channel. "For example, we are going to have more voting precincts."

Romero noted the TSE will announce the entire set of measures in the next few weeks.

The court announced Tuesday it reached an agreement with political parties to hold elections Sept. 6.

Romero said in a press conference in La Paz that the Full Chamber of the court will send to the Legislative Assembly a bill that establishes a new maximum deadline for the elections, which it foresees being conducted Sunday, Sept. 6.

Once the bill is signed into law, the electoral body will set the date for the elections through a resolution, he added.

Elections set for May 3 was suspended by the TSE after the government declared a 14-day national quarantine to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

The Latin American nation has nearly 11,000 diagnosed cases and 376 deaths, according to the running tally by US-based Johns Hopkins University.