1951 Bolivian general election

←  1947 6 May 1951 1956 →
Registered	204,649
Presidential election
Nominee Víctor Paz Estenssoro Gabriel Gosálvez Bernardino Bilbao Rioja Party MNR PURS FSB Popular vote 54,129 40,381 13,259 Percentage 42.91% 32.01% 10.51%   Nominee Guillermo Gutiérrez Vea Murguía Tomás Manuel Elío Party ACB Liberal Popular vote 6,654 6,530 Percentage 5.27% 5.17%
President before election Mamerto Urriolagoitía PURS Elected President Election results annulled President Urriolagoitía enacts a self-coup. Brigadier General Hugo Ballivián becomes de facto president

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General elections were held in Bolivia on 6 May 1951. ^[1] Víctor Paz Estenssoro of the opposition Revolutionary Nationalist Movement (MNR) received the most votes in the presidential election, but as he did not obtain an absolute majority, the National Congress was constitutionally obliged to elect a President on 6 August from the three candidates who received the most public votes. However, on 16 May a military junta assumed responsibility for the Government with Brigadier General Hugo Ballivián as President.

The National Congress was ultimately dissolved by Supreme Decree of 7 June, 1951, which annulled the results of the elections. ^[2]

Until 1956, Bolivia did not have universal suffrage. Rather, the country operated under the "qualified vote" system in which deputies elected in parish and provincial boards then voted in general elections. ^[3] Under this system, ballots for president and vice president were separate resulting in different vote totals for each.

The Republican Socialist Unity Party (PURS) and the Social Democratic Party (PSD) formed the Social Democratic Action alliance to contest the election, with Gabriel Gosalvez of PURS running for President and Roberto Arce of the PSD running for Vice-President.

• Gisbert, Carlos D. Mesa (2003). Presidentes de Bolivia: entre urnas y fusiles : el poder ejecutivo, los ministros de estado (in Spanish). Editorial Gisbert.