The candidate for the presidency of Paraguay for the ruling Colorado Party, Santiago Peña, prevails with 45.95% of the votes over the opposition Efraín Alegre, who achieves 29.08%, officially scrutinized 10.95% of the votes votes at 6:30 p.m.
More than 4.8 million Paraguayans voted this Sunday for a new president and Congress in elections marked by accusations of corruption against high-ranking figures of the ruling party, and in which important foreign policy decisions gravitate, such as the relationship with Taiwan and China.
Santiago Peña, a 44-year-old economist, tries to retain power for the ruling Colorado Party (conservative), against Efraín Alegre, a 60-year-old lawyer who leads the center-left coalition Concertación Nacional.
The Colorado Party has governed Paraguay for most of the last seven decades, under dictatorship and under democracy, with a single interruption during the government of Fernando Lugo (2008-12), who was ousted in impeachment a year before the end of his term.
The electoral campaign took place simultaneously with US sanctions against some of the most important Colorado leaders, such as former President Horacio Cartesa wealthy tobacco businessman, party president, and Peña’s political godfather.
Designated in 2022 as “significantly corrupt” by the State Department, which banned him from entering the United States, he was sanctioned in March by the Treasury. “These accusations, by the time they come out, somehow turn the elections into a plebiscite against or in favor of corruption,” said the political analyst Sebastián Acha.
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