the 1999 elections the Conscience of the Fatherland (CONDEPA) was a party in crisis. The party had suffered the death of its leader Carlos Palenque, and divisions had erupted amongst his successors. Moreover, the influence of the mass media connected to the party had decreased significantly. As the party lost the municipal contest in El Alto in these elections, they lost their last remaining political stronghold in the country. Candidates According to a study of Xavier Albó and Víctor Quispe (which included a survey of 1628 local politicians, roughly corresponding to the final election tally), 76% of the surveyed politicians were members of the political party which had nominated them as candidates. The highest number was found in the Nationalist Revolutionary Movement (MNR), 85%, whilst the lowest figure was recorded amongst the candidates of the Without Fear Movement (MSM), 36%. The Albó/Quispe study also surveyed the ethnic identification of the councilors. The survey included four degrees of (indigenous) as well as a 'non-indigenous' category. 22.4% of surveyed councilors were identified as 'highly' indigenous, 20.6% as 'medium', 19.0% 'discoursive' indigenous, 11.0% as 'discretely' indigenous and 27.0% as 'non-indigenous'. Two parties, the Communist Party of Bolivia (PCB) and the Movement for Socialism (MAS) had the markedly highest number of indigenous (in the two first degree categories), 75.60% for the Communist Party and 75.0% for MAS. Amongst the Communist Party councilors, 62.50% were identified as 'highly' ethnic (the highest number amongst all contesting parties). The percentage of non-indigenous PCB/MAS candidates was only 1.3%. The high number of indigenous councilors of the Communist Party can be explained through the alliance the party had done with Alejo Veliz's group. The highest percentage of non-indigenous councilors was found in the three mayor parties (MNR, ADN, MIR), which all had a percentage of non-indigenous candidates slightly exceeding 30%. Results The elections produced a fragmented verdict in most municipalities. In line with the pattern in the national political scene at the time, building coalitions was often necessary in order to form a municipal government. In terms of percentage of votes, the 'big three' (MNR, ADN, MIR) stood at 51%, a reduction from 59% in the 1987 municipal elections. The share of votes mustered by smaller parties increased compared to the 1995 election, parties with less than 3% of the national votes shared 11.27% of the votes (compared to 6.0% in 1995). A government study of 269 municipalities showed