While it is certainly true that Bolívar was the official ruler of the country starting from his arrival on 12 August, there exists conflict amongst scholars as to whether he should be considered the first president of the republic.

This is due to the fact that Bolívar is never referred to as president in legal documents and was never sworn-in having renounced the title in favor of Sucre on 29 December 1825.

Mesa points to the Congressional decree of 11 August 1825 which proclaims Bolívar "liberator" granting him "Supreme Executive Power of the Republic."

[11] Despite this, on 28 November 2017, the Supreme Tribunal of Justice ruled that all elected officials could run for office indefinitely, rather than for the two consecutive terms permitted under the 2009 Constitution.

This was replaced by a two-round system in which if no party won more than half of the popular vote in the first electoral round, the top two contenders would run in a runoff election.

Germán Busch committed suicide and René Barrientos died in a helicopter crash; both deaths are rumored to have been planned assassinations.

José María Pérez de Urdininea, Felipe Segundo Guzmán, Carlos Blanco Galindo, Carlos Quintanilla, Néstor Guillén, Tomás Monje, Wálter Guevara, Lidia Gueiler Tejada, Eduardo Rodríguez and most recently Jeanine Áñez all came to power as interim presidents due to the fact the previous president had resigned, been deposed, died, or otherwise left office and new elections had to be held to elect a valid successor.

In the case of temporary incapacity or absence from the country, the title of Acting President (Spanish: Presidente en ejercicio) is transferred to lower officials according to the order of presidential succession.

[17] José Miguel de Velasco Franco, Mariano Enrique Calvo, and Pedro José Domingo de Guerra were acting presidents for particularly long periods of time of multiple months or, in the case of Enrique Calvo, multiple years.The Palacio Quemado, in English "Burnt Palace," in the legal capital of La Paz was the official residence of the president of Bolivia from 1853 to 2018.

Its nickname originates from the fact that it was set aflame and burned almost to the ground when rebels in opposition to Tomás Frías Ametller failed to storm it and instead opted to light it on fire in 1875.

His term as Supreme Protector of the Peru–Bolivian Confederation saw the height of the political power of Bolivia on the South American continent though it would ultimately end in failure and the separation of the two states.

Following the War of the Pacific, Aniceto Arce and Ismael Montes would respectivaley become influential leaders in the Conservative and Liberal eras.

Víctor Paz Estenssoro led the 1952 National Revolution and founded the Revolutionary Nationalist Movement (MNR) which heavily influenced Bolivian politics in the second half of the 20th century.

However, there have been challenges to this claim by critics who have asserted that Morales probably has some European ancestry, and thus on genetic grounds is technically mestizo rather than solely indigenous.

[26] Further, former president Enrique Peñaranda was of substantially indigenous origin while Andrés de Santa Cruz, was of Aymara and Inca lineage.

Harten asserted that this argument was "misguided[,] wrong[... and] above all irrelevant" because regardless of his genetic makeup, the majority of Bolivians perceive Morales as being the first indigenous president.