Republican Socialist Unity Party

The Republican Socialist Unity Party (Spanish: Partido de la Unión Republicana Socialista, PURS) was a political party founded on 10 November, 1946 in Bolivia as the fusion of the Republican Socialist Party, the Genuine Republican Party, the United Socialist Party, and the Independent Socialist Party.[1]

The PURS was a last-ditch effort of Bolivia's traditional political establishment to oppose the forces of mass-based populism and of socialism. Led by Enrique Hertzog Garaizabal, Francisco Lazcano Soruca, Waldo Belmonte Pool, and Mamerto Urriolagoitía Harriague, the Republican Socialist Unity Party attempted particularly to revive the position and popularity of the old Saavedristas wing of the Republican Party. PURS’s doctrines were conservative, favoring anticommunism, ample room for free enterprise, and antifascism, primarily interpreted as opposition to the Revolutionary Nationalist Movement.[2]

The Republican Socialist Unity Party participated in the 1947 and 1951 general elections. Enrique Hertzog Garaizabal was elected President of the Republic in 1947, with Mamerto Urriolagoitía Harriague as his Vice-President; and the latter succeeded to the presidency when Enrique Hertzog resigned because of ill health.

In the 1951 elections, Gabriel Gosalvez ran for the PURS but received far fewer votes than the winner.[3] PURS supported the military takeover which followed the elections, in order to prevent Víctor Paz Estenssoro from becoming President on the basis of his popular plurality.[4]

Following the 1952 revolution, the PURS became inactive, although in formal terms it continued to exist through the early 1970s.[5]

For the 1966 elections, the PURS was the component of the Democratic Institutionalist Alliance, with Enrique Hertzog Garaizabal as the coalition's presidential candidate. He polled 11,400 votes (01.13%) and came sixth.[6]

In 1978 PURS allied with the Nationalist Union of the People and its candidate Juan Pereda.[7]

Notes

  1. ↑ Political handbook of the world 1950. New York, 1950. P. 16.
  2. ↑ Political parties of the Americas: Canada, Latin America, and the West Indies. Greenwood Press, 1982. P. 141.
  3. ↑ "Sistema electotales en Bolivia" (PDF). cne.org.bo.
  4. ↑ Latin American political parties. Praeger, 1973. P. 39.
  5. ↑ Political parties of the Americas: Canada, Latin America, and the West Indies. Greenwood Press, 1982. P. 141.
  6. ↑ Elections in the Americas : a data handbook / ed. by Dieter Nohlen, Vol. 2. [Oxford] [u.a.]: Oxford Univ. Press, 2005. P.150.
  7. ↑ Elections in the Americas : a data handbook / ed. by Dieter Nohlen, Vol. 2. [Oxford] [u.a.]: Oxford Univ. Press, 2005. P.139.
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