One of the front-runners in Bolivia's upcoming presidential election, right-winger Jorge Quiroga, told AFP on Friday the country was poised for "radical change" after two decades of socialist rule marked in recent years by a severe economic crisis.

Quiroga, who briefly served as president from 2001 to 2002, is running a close second behind center-right business magnate Samuel Doria Medina in polls for the first round of the election on August 17.

The ruling Movement towards Socialism (MAS), founded by three-term ex-president Evo Morales, is shown at rock bottom, with voters poised to punish the party over its handling of the worst crisis in two decades.

Basics like fuel and food items are in short supply in the Andean nation, which is running out of the dollars it needs to import essent

See Full Page