Quiroga, Doria Medina, Rodríguez – Three candidates to watch in Bolivia's election

A multi-millionaire Burger King franchise owner, a former IBM engineer and a coca growers' leader are among eight candidates vying to be president of Bolivia in elections starting Sunday.

Right-wing ex-president Jorge 'Tuto' Quiroga and centre-right business tycoon Samuel Doria Medina, both of whom are on their fourth attempts at the presidency, are neck-and-neck in opinion polls, trailed by six other hopefuls.

Here is a look at the two frontrunners and the main left-wing candidate.

Crusading right-winger

An engineer from the central city of Cochabamba, al studied in Texas and worked at IBM before returning to Bolivia, where he served as vice president under former military dictator Hugo Banzer in the 1990s.

Banzer ruled with an iron fist in the 1970s and later returned to power as president through the ballot box. When he stepped down in 2001 due to cancer, Quiroga served out the remainder of his term.

Quiroga, 65, later ran unsuccessfully against leftist icon Evo Morales in 2005 and 2014 elections. He also campaigned for president in 2020, but dropped out at the last minute because of his poor poll standing.

The candidate of the Libre ("Free") coalition styles himself as a liberal, but his fierce disavowal of 20 "lost years" of socialism has made him a darling of conservatives.

He told AFP that Bolivia could expect "seismic change" if he were elected

Quiroga wants to pursue free trade deals with Europe and China, among others, as well as shrink the size of the government and privatize loss-making public companies. He also wants to invite the US Drug Enforcement Administration, which Morales threw out, back to Bolivia to fight cocaine-trafficking.

Fast-food tycoon

Samuel Doria Medina, 66, made a fortune in cement before going on to build Bolivia's biggest skyscraper and acquire the country's Burger King franchise, among other ventures.

Despite his wealth, the La Paz-born tycoon defines himself as a social democrat and says he is best placed to unite Bolivians from across the left-right divide.

"I come from a humble family... My father had to drop out of school at 14," the Alianza Unidad leader told AFP in a recent interview.

A former planning minister, Medina points to his experience in turning around companies as proof of his ability to rescue Bolivia's economy.

He has promised to slash public spending by ending the fuel subsidies that cost the state billions of dollars each year and by closing loss-making state enterprises. But he has sought to soften the blow by promising to maintain anti-poverty programmes.

Coca champion

Left-wing Senate president Andrónico Rodríguez broke with his former political mentor Morales to run for president after the three-term ex-leader was barred from running again.

In doing so, Rodríguez fell foul of the powerful Morales, who has called on his supporters to spoil their ballots.

Rodríguez, 36, followed in Morales' footsteps by working his way up to the leadership of Bolivia's biggest coca-growers' union before running for office.

With his political party MAS dogged by infighting, Rodríguez opted to run for the rival Alianza Popular coalition.

But his past association with the ruling party appears to be costing him support.

The fresh-faced senator, who favors what he calls "intelligent austerity," has fallen from third place to fourth or fifth in the most recent polls.