Constitutional lawyer Pedro Callisaya won the contest, receiving ninety-five votes, a two-thirds majority of those present but not of the total membership of both legislative chambers.

This was the longest process for designating an ombudsman in Bolivian history, lasting six months and eight days from the initial call for applicants in mid-March to the final election in late September.

The extension of Nadia Cruz's term three years past her original ninety-day acting mandate and a lower court's ruling granting President Luis Arce the ability to unilaterally designate an ombudsman should the legislature fail to were both denounced as a usurpation of functions, with the latter decision setting a precedent for the head of state to potentially designate the country's highest electoral, judicial, and constitutional authorities when their terms expire in 2023.

[3][4] David Tezanos Pinto [es], a criminal lawyer from La Paz, served as the National Director of Public Defense of the Ministry of Justice from January 2014 until May 2016.

[8] However, this process stalled, and by 2021, Cruz's interim administration had already exceeded the length of Tezanos Pinto's entire tenure and far surpassed the ninety days the law establishes for an acting authority to remain in office.

Legal analysts noted that since the MAS had a majority in the Mixed Commission, this rule would grant them complete control over the pre-selection of candidates, meaning that the plenary session of the legislature could do little more than choose between different MAS-aligned officials.

Silvia Padilla, president of the Bolivian National Bar Association, elaborated that "the mediocrity of the opposition" had allowed institutions such as the Ombudsman's Office to "become an operating arm of the MAS".

This addendum disqualified all individuals who participated in the "rupture of the constitutional order", referring to the mass mobilizations that forced the resignation of then-president Evo Morales in November 2019, an event the MAS considers to have been a coup d'état.

MAS Deputy Gualberto Arispe, who designed the regulation, stated that the rule barred all individuals who protested in 2019 or participated in the subsequent transitional government from being presented as candidates for the position of ombudsman.

As soon as the session began, Chuquisaca Senator Silvia Salame of Civic Community (CC) raised a preliminary motion to establish that the regulation face the approval of two-thirds of the Legislative Assembly.

[15] Also present were Vice President Choquehuanca and Minister of Justice Iván Lima, a fact that, according to Creemos caucus leader José Carlos Gutiérrez, "show[ed the] predisposition" of the ruling party to resolve the conflict".

[16] The most notable change in the draft regulation was the removal of Article 8 Section 15, thus eliminating the ban on those involved in the 2019 crisis and bringing the candidate selection process in line with the one in 2016.

[19] The regulations approved by the Legislative Assembly provided for oversight of the designation process by civil society organizations with recognized legal status, whose dedicated purpose is the promotion and/or defense of human rights.

[20] In December 2021, human rights activists affiliated with the MAS had discarded Carvajal's leadership and formed their own institution, electing a new board of directors with Salazar—a member of the MAS—as its president.

If elected, Sanjinés pledged to seek the elimination of the life annuity for former presidents and stated that he would work to promote the Ombudsman's Office as a unifying force in the country.

[24] Kanashiro, a folk healer recognized by the Bolivian Society of Traditional Medicine (SOBOMETRA), was noted for having submitted his application while wearing a face mask made of animal and plant plasma, which he claimed was used to ward off storms.

[29][30] Two more women, Camila Luna, a commercial engineer from La Paz, and Delma Alcón, an educational scientist from Cochabamba, submitted their applications two days later.

Despite his lack of previous activist or professional experience in the field, Lima assured that the daily fight for the validity of human rights qualified him to hold the position.

Patty had gained public notoriety for being the main plaintiff in the coup d'état case, for which former president Jeanine Áñez and multiple interim government officials were arrested on charges of conspiracy, sedition, and terrorism.

Additional applicants included Adolfo Soliz, a member of the defunct Revolutionary Left Movement who served as prefect of La Paz, and Manuel Morales, the leader of the National Committee for the Defense of Democracy (CONADE).

[273] The most significant challenge came from Civic Community, which contested Cruz's authorization on the grounds that the Constitution prohibits any former ombudsman from running again regardless of whether or not they performed their functions in an acting capacity.

Notably, some MAS legislators also objected to the presence of some candidates, including Deputy Gladys Quispe, who accused Evelín Cossío of being an "accomplice in the coup d'état" and not speaking "one iota" of Aymara.

In previous legislative elections, assembly members were traditionally handed blank sheets of paper on which they would write the name of their preferred candidate before being called to the front of the hemicycle to cast their vote.

[304] Ultimately, however, the MAS decided to extend Cruz's mandate, relying on an interpretation of the regulations that allowed for the acting ombudsman to remain in office until the appointment of a new official.

The MAS fully coalesced around Callisaya, granting him ninety-nine votes, while forty-seven CC legislators submitted ballots in favor of Cossío, an incremental yet unsubstantial increase for both candidates.

With this impasse in mind, Deputy Arispe submitted a motion to postpone the election to a future session—with no scheduled date or time—justifying that the multiple unsuccessful attempts were hindering the legislature's law-making duties.

The issue of electing a new ombudsman remained largely untouched for two months, at which point the conflict flared up again in the wake of a controversial ruling by the Fourth Constitutional Chamber of La Paz.

The opposition also expressed concern over the fact that the ruling could be applied to other authorities, including the comptroller general, high judges and prosecutors, and even members of the country's highest electoral, judicial, and constitutional tribunals, whose terms were set to expire in 2023.

[316][317] The court's unexpected ruling spurred the Legislative Assembly back into action, and in late July, Choquehuanca announced that another vote would be held on the topic.

On the morning of 23 September, during a session originally convened to deal with two bills, Deputy Jauregui proposed a last-minute modification to the legislature's agenda, changing the order of the day to include another vote.