General elections were held in Bolivia on 29 June 1980, the third in three years. As no candidate in the presidential elections received a majority of the vote, the National Congress was required to elect a President on 6 August. With Hernán Siles Zuazo of the Democratic and Popular Union the favourite to win the Congressional ballot, the process was disrupted on 17 July by the military coup led by General Luis García Meza Tejada. However, Meza was pressured to resign on 4 August 1981, resulting in General Celso Torrelio becoming president. In July 1982 he was replaced by General Guido Vildoso, who was named by the high command to return the country to democratic rule. On 17 September 1982, during a general strike that brought the country close to civil war, the military decided to step down, to reconvene the National Congress elected in 1980, and to accept its choice of president. Accordingly, the National Congress revalidated the 1980 election results on 23 September and overwhelmingly elected Hernán Siles Zuazo as president on 5 October. He subsequently assumed the presidency on 10 October 1982.

The 1978 elections were the first since 1966, with several military coups taking place during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Although Juan Pereda of the Nationalist Union of the People won the presidential elections, more votes were cast than there were registered voters. After examining a number of allegations of fraud and other irregularities, the Electoral Court decided to annul the results on 20 July. The following day, Pereda was installed as president following a military coup. Pereda himself was overthrown by yet another military coup in November, which saw General David Padilla assume the presidency, promising to hold fresh elections in July the following year.

In the subsequent elections in July 1979, no candidate for president received over 50% of the vote. When Congress was required to elect a president, it failed to come to a majority agreement after three ballots. Instead, Senate leader Wálter Guevara was elected to serve as interim president for a year on 8 August. However, Guevara was later overthrown by another military coup led by Alberto Natusch on 31 October and 1 November.

Natusch himself would only last sixteen days in office, after which he was forced to resign. To save face, Natusch extracted from Congress an agreement that Guevara would not resume the interim presidency. As such, Congress instead elected Lidia Gueiler Tejada, then leader of the Chamber of Deputies, as interim president. Gueiler called new elections to be held on 29 June 1980, the third consecutive presidential election in a row.

13 candidates presented themselves for the 1980 elections including a total of 5 former presidents. Hernán Siles Zuazo, narrow popular vote winner of the 1979 election, returned with his Democratic and Popular Union (UDP) coalition while the Revolutionary Nationalist Movement-Alliance (MNR-A) once again presented MNR leader Víctor Paz Estenssoro as their candidate with Ñuflo Chávez Ortiz, former vice president to Siles Zuazo, as Paz Estenssoro's running mate.

Paz Estenssoro was faced with the repercussions of Alberto Natusch's 1 November coup. This was due to the fact that certain congressional members of the MNR, most notably Guillermo Bedregal and José Fellman, had participated in the coup that brought Alberto Natusch to power. Paz Estenssoro had also been himself accused of participating in the planning of the coup, though this could not be proven. The scandal resulted in a fracturing of the MNR-A. Wálter Guevara, whose interim presidency had been cut short by the coup, withdrew the support of his Authentic Revolutionary Party (PRA) as did the Christian Democratic Party (PDC). Further, left-wing members of the MNR split from the party and formed the Alliance of Nationalist Left Forces of the MNR (AFIN-MNR) followed shortly thereafter by right-wing members of the MNR who formed the United Revolutionary Nationalist Movement (MNRU).

The PRA and AFIN-MNR ran their own campaigns with the PRA presenting Wálter Guevara and Flavio Machicado Saravia and AFIN-MNR presenting Roberto Jordán Pando and Edmundo Roca. The MNRU joined in alliance with another MNR splinter group, the left-wing Movement of the National Left (MIN), and presented as their candidate Guillermo Bedregal with his running mate Miguel Trigo.

In Spring 1980, the PDC joined the Alliance of the National Left (ADIN), Socialist Party-Guillermo Aponte (PS-Aponte), Revolutionary Workers Party Trotskyist-Posadist (POR-TP), and Offensive of the Democratic Left (OID), in forming the Democratic Revolutionary Front–New Alternative (FDR-NA). The coalition presented Luis Adolfo Siles Salinas, former president and half-brother of Hernán Siles Zuazo, as their candidate with Benjamin Miguel Harb as his running mate.