Santiago Peña of the ruling National Republican Association (ANR), also known as the Colorado Party, won Sunday's elections in Paraguay and will become the South American country's new president on Aug. 15, it was reported in Asunción. Turnout stood at 63.11% despite voting being mandatory.
Less than three weeks before the April 30 presidential elections in Paraguay, the ruling National Republican Association (ANR), also known as the Colorado Party, continues to face serious financing problems stemming from Party Chairman Horacio Cartes having been declared significantly corrupt by the United States, which renders him non-eligible for many banks to sign loan agreements.
A study by Fitch forecasts that next month's Presidential elections in Paraguay will mark the end of one of the two surviving conservative governments in the region. Should Santiago Peña of the Colorado Party be defeated on April 30 by Efraín Alegre of Concertación, Uruguay's Luis Lacalle Pou would become the only non-leftwing leader in all of South America.
Leaders of Paraguay's opposition have announced they will run together for the presidency in 2023 with a ticket yet to be defined, under what is known in local electoral law as a concertación (a group of various political formations).
Congresswoman Celeste Amarilla from the Authentic Radical Liberal Party said money from drug trafficking exists in all parties, although this criminal influence is more prevalent in the Colorado Party.
Paraguay’s president, Mario Abdo, has reached his first year in office with a 69% disapproval rating amid an enduring political crisis and a significant economic slowdown, according to a survey published on Wednesday.
Paraguay's Colorado Party Monday backed its support of President Mario Abdo in the aftermath of the political scandal sparked last week when the somber Itaipu electricity deal with Brazil was unearthed, leaving the government on the brink of impeachment, a threat which has been averted.... for now.
Mario Abdo Benitez, Marito, took over as Paraguay's new president on Wednesday, replacing a seemingly disgruntled Horacio Cartes, who left the inauguration ceremony before it finished. Abdo Benitez, 46, promised to combat poverty and entrenched corruption, and urged Paraguayans to look toward the future and not remain stuck in the past as he took the oath of office to start a five-year term.
Paraguay's business-friendly ruling party lost fewer seats in Sunday's Senate election, than expected, ensuring strict fiscal policies while lessening chances of a tax hike on the key soy sector. Farmers in the world's No. 4 soybean exporter had feared that the new Senate might approves a measure, defeated last year, that would slap a 10% levy on exports.
Paraguay's Mario Abdo Benitez, “Marito”, who represents the country's long-dominant Colorado Party, was elected as president on Sunday, landing the top job in the country with the smallest economy in Mercosur. The US-educated son of a senior aide to the country's late dictator, Abdo Benitez won slightly more than 46% of the vote, with his centrist opponent Efrain Alegre taking almost 43% in a race that was far closer than expected.