Paraguay’s conservative Colorado Party, which has ruled Asuncion for 80 years, may face a strong electoral challenge next month.
People desire to change and are tired of party infighting and graft, opening the path for a broad opposition alliance to take power.
President, lawmakers, and regional governors will be elected in one round on April 30.
The Colorado party economist Santiago Pena and Concertacion Nacional lawyer Efrain Alegre lead a huge but divided field of presidential candidates in opinion surveys.
Taiwan-Paraguay relations are in jeopardy. Alegre plans to cut them to open the country’s important soy and cattle export industries to China.
Alegre also pledged to lower energy costs, expand social assistance, and modernize the judiciary. In addition, Peña promises “employment reforms” to increase jobs and fight crime and narcotics.
Save for Fernando Lugo’s 2008-2012 impeachment, the Colorados had ruled continuously since one-party control in the 1950s.
Voters want change.
“I want change, I no longer want the Colorados ruling everything,” said Asuncion graphic designer Karina Galindo, 50.
“All their campaign promises are meaningless for me because they promise anything.”
A U.S.-led graft inquiry against former Colorado president Horacio Cartes, who served from 2013 to 2018, may affect Peña. However, However, Pena’s major supporter, Cartes, disputes the claims.
Mario Abdo Benitez, the current president, says Pena is not the greatest choice.
Marcos Perez Talia, a political science scholar at the University of Valencia, said Alegre’s opposition party has improved since its 2018 tight loss.
“Now the Concertacion is a bigger area for people coming together and there is more likelihood it will shift the vote,” he added.
The Colorado party has a strong election campaign machine with longtime supporters. Marcello Lachi, a Paraguayan political scientist, said that might help it win.
Adelina Caceres, head of a public school in Guarambare, a city suburb, said she backed the Colorado party because “her grandpa had been Colorado” despite being dissatisfied with them.
“I always knock on politicians’ homes to solicit support for the school… Yet we receive very little from the Colorados,” she added.
Surveys reveal Paraguayans care about employment, security, and corruption, and indecisive voters may determine the August 15 election.
“Both parties are very bad,” remarked 45-year-old accountant Lorena Ruiz. “I’ll decide before the election who’s more palatable.”
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