BOLIVIA’S coup-administration has delayed elections for a third time after election authorities said they would be “unfeasible” due to the global Covid-19 pandemic.

Supreme Electoral Tribunal president Salvador Romero said that the step was necessary in order to protect voters with the country’s hospitals and cemeteries under strain.

“This election requires the highest possible health security measures to protect the health of Bolivians,” he said at a La Paz press conference.

The delay was quickly accepted by interim President Jeanine Anez, who was appointed by the army after a US-backed coup ousted Evo Morales in November last year.

“Whatever the date, the government calls for promoting economic revival, the fight against the virus and the consolidation of democracy,” she said.

But Mr Morales warned that it was an attempt for the right-wing administration to “gain more time” with the delay only causing more harm to the people of Bolivia.

He branded the delay unconstitutional, insisting that such a move requires the consent of Bolivia’s Legislative Assembly which is controlled by his Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) party.

Ms Anez is desperate to cling on to power with polls pointing to an overwhelming MAS victory in the parliamentary elections and its candidate Luis Arce ahead in the presidential race.

The delay could trigger a fresh wave of protests with a group of coca farmers in the MAS stronghold of Chapare in central Bolivia rejecting the commission’s “unilateral” decision.

Unless the decision to postpone elections in the Andean country is not retracted in the next 72 hours it warned of mobilisations and the potential blockade of Bolivia’s crucial trade routes.