LA PAZ, April 29, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Bolivia's ruling Moving Towards Socialism party on Monday nominated President Luis Arce as its candidate for the general election set for August, despite opinion polls that predict the incumbent's defeat.

The 61-year-old has not declared his intent to run for reelection, and has until May 11 to make his candidacy official.

Arce thanked members of his MAS party at a rally held Monday in a square in the north of the administrative capital La Paz.

"We will never betray the Bolivian people," Arce proclaimed. "We will once again win at the ballot box."

All pre-election polls place Arce on the losing side.

In 2020 the leftist was elected with 55 percent of the vote, but his popularity has sagged, with voters blaming him for the country's ongoing economic crisis.

The MAS has been ravaged -- and has lost ground -- due to infighting between Arce and former president Evo Morales, a onetime ally and founder of the party.

Declared ineligible but determined to run again, Morales, the South American country's first-ever Indigenous president, has created a new political movement and intends to enter the August 17 presidential race under the banner of the "Front for Victory," a small party with no parliamentary representation.