[4] The Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR) was able to make a minor comeback in these elections, increasing its share of votes to 16% compared to around 9% in the 1993 and 1995 municipal polls.
[2] The Nationalist Democratic Action (ADN), the party of then president and former military dictator Hugo Banzer, came third in the polls.
MAS emerged from the split in the Assembly for the Sovereignty of the Peoples, which had been divided in a factional conflict between Morales and Alejo Veliz.
Morales' group obtained the legal registry to compete in the elections by borrowing the registration (and party name) of a falangist splinter faction (MAS-U).
However, the party was able to consolidate its position in the mayoral election in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, where its candidate Johnny Férnandez was re-elected.
[13] In line with the pattern in the national political scene at the time, building coalitions was often necessary in order to form a municipal government.
[13] The two parties sharing the national government at the time of the election (ADN and MIR) obtained a combined vote of 38.1%.
However, national alliances did not play a role in the municipal elections, as the different parties of the governing bloc competed against each other on the local level.
Newer parties like NFR and MSM got a relatively lower number of seats, as their vote was concentrated in urban areas.
[18] In La Paz, the media attention of the election campaign came to focus on the Juan del Granado's discourse against corruption and in favour of participatory democracy.
In the end del Granado, a known human rights lawyer and parliamentarian, won the election by a very thin margin.
However CONDEPA was weakened in the city not only by the impact of the loss of its national leader, but also suffered from impopularity due to corruption and mismanagement in the municipality.
[21] Evo Morales' new platform MAS obtained 39% of the votes in the Cochabamba Department, winning seven mayoral posts.