MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Paraguay's Senate blocks president's early exit

Paraguay's Senate failed to muster a quorum Tuesday, thereby frustrating President Nicanor Duarte Frutos's bid to resign two months before the end of his term to join that same legislative body.

"Given that there is no quorum, the session is ended," said the interim president of the National Congress, Oscar Ruben Salomon. An insufficient number of members of liberals, minority party members, and even some members of his ruling Colorado Party showed up in the Senate to form the quorum necessary to approve the resignation request he made Monday. That means Duarte must continue as president of the republic until Congress decides to accept his resignation or until August 15, when his term of office officially ends. After Tuesday's vote, Rep. Victor Bogado, a member of the Colorado Party, asked for another vote to be scheduled for both houses of Congress. Barred from running for a second five-year presidential term, Duarte instead ran for and won a seat in Paraguay's Senate in April. But the new senators are to be sworn in on July 1, six weeks before his term of office is over. Though President-elect Fernando Lugo of the Patriotic Alliance for Change has supported Duarte's bid to resign, opponents argue the constitution does not allow the president to occupy two offices at the same time, a rule intended to ensure that the chief of state does not give short shrift to the job. During a nationally televised address on Monday, Duarte said he wants "to continue serving the Paraguayan people" from the legislature