MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Paraguayan elected president after Congressional accord

Paraguayan president elect Fernando Lugo who takes office next August 15 will have to reach a working agreement in Congress since the coalition that supported him was unable to obtain a majority.

The former Catholic bishop is supported by the Patriotic Alliance for Change, APC, made up of ten political groupings plus social, trade union and peasants organizations with the most diverse ideology (from conservative to extreme radical) which last April 20 put an end to the 61 years of the Colorado Party political hegemony in Paraguay. According to the latest release from the Electoral authority in the next Paraguayan Senate, the Partido Colorado will have a relative majority, 15 out of 45 seats, followed by Lugo's Liberals with 14; the former general Lino Oviedo will have 9 members; a fourth party with businessmen support under Pedro Fadul managed 4 seats and three smaller organizations, all allies of President Lugo, one each. Vice president and head of the Liberals, Vicente Franco said that to ensure governance and support in Congress the incoming president Lugo administration had offered the Senate presidency to the Fadul faction and other significant posts to Mr. Oviedo's party. They still have to respond. Regarding the Lower House with 80 seats, the long established Partido Colorado will have 29; Liberals, 26; Oviedo's party 16 and the remaining 9 are distributed among smaller organizations. Of the 17 county governors, 9 went to the Colorados; 7 to the Liberals and the rest to regional parties. In related news the future Economy minister Dionisio Borda announced his plan of action until August 15 and the following 100 days. Borda said priority will be given to combat poverty and create jobs for which he has named two teams: one to assess the current financial situation of government and government owned companies and a second programmatic approach to define policies to be implemented. The plan has a short term 100 days leg as of August 15; followed by a mid term to cover 2009 and long term strategies for 2010, 2011 and 2012. According to the Paraguayan press Minister Borda has the support from the business and farming communities.