By Lucinda Elliott, Daniela Desantis
ASUNCION (Reuters) - In the heart of Paraguay’s capital Asuncion, a tropical city close to the Argentine border, voters are gearing up for election day on Sunday, with the economy, corruption and Taiwan on their minds.
The farming nation of just under 7 million people will go to the polls to vote in what is expected to be a close contest between the slick, 44-year-old economist Santiago Pena representing the incumbent conservative Colorado Party and the 60-year-old political veteran Efrain Alegre leading a broad center-left coalition and pledging a foreign policy shake-up.
Pollsters see a tight race, even a technical tie. The ruling Colorado Party has dominated Paraguayan politics for the last three-quarters of a century, in power for all but five years. But persistent corruption allegations have led to cracks appearing in their support.
“We never talked about politics before, because a win for the Colorado Party was a done deal,” 40-year-old bank worker Gustavo Vera told Reuters in the capital. “There’s an air of change, the people have woken up.”
At the bustling Mercado 4 street market in Asuncion, most cited the tough economic situation. The fiscal deficit ballooned to 3% of GDP last year, average annual growth in the last four years dipped to 0.7%, and extreme poverty has risen.
“We’re going backwards, that is how I feel,” said Nicolas Ortigoza, 32, as he served chicken skewers at his stall. “There’s more corruption in Paraguay than work... All I know is we have to work much harder to make ends meet.”
Whoever takes over the presidency in August is likely to come under pressure from the newly-elected legislature to reduce spending after a splurge to ease the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the invasion of Ukraine. Alegre has pledged to cut energy bills and Pena has promised to create more jobs.
“Whoever wins is going to have to limit public spending because debt cannot continue to grow,” economist and former finance minister Cesar Barreto told Reuters, adding it was a “complex” moment for any new government.
In political newscasts and columns, talk has centered on the debate about whether to end long-term diplomatic relations with Taiwan in favor of China, and a string of graft allegations against key Colorado Party leaders.
The U.S. Treasury earlier this year imposed sanctions on party chief Horacio Cartes and Vice President Hugo Velazquez, citing “rampant corruption.” They both deny the charges.
But the noise is swaying some voters.
“We’ve lived for too long with corruption, with poverty, with hidden drug trafficking and negligent healthcare,” said student Eiden Malky, 19, who is voting for the first time.
“There is a lot of opposition to the Colorados... Not that the next politicians will be better, but we will vote (for them) because they offer something different.”
Alegre, on his third presidential campaign, has pulled together a broad alliance of independent parties to challenge the powerful Colorado political machine. But he has come under fire from some quarters for indicating he would end nearly 70 years of diplomatic ties with Taiwan in a push to open up China’s huge markets for Paraguayan soy and beef.
Back in the Asuncion street market, fish seller Candida Britez, 59, said her sales were weak and falling, and she was keen to have a new political leader to improve things.
“Customers before would buy three or five kilos, now maybe just one kilo. I can barely make enough to buy bread, sugar and milk,” she said, adding that after the market closes she travels door-to-door selling what she can.
“Those of us who don’t have much want to see prices fall, better schools, and more affordable electricity with our next president,” said Britez.
Reporting by Lucinda Elliott and Daniela Desantis; Editing by Adam Jourdan and Rosalba O’Brien
Paraguay Gears Up For Tight Presidential Election
By Nina NEGRON
April 27, 2023
Paraguayans go the polls Sunday for the South American country's closest presidential race in many years, with a center-leftist coalition hoping to end an almost unbroken, seven-decade run for the ruling right-wing Colorado party.
The vote comes at a difficult time for the party that has governed almost continually since the 1950s -- through a dictatorship and since the return of democracy in 1989 -- with several of its leaders recently sanctioned for graft by the United States.
This has complicated the position of the party's presidential candidate Santiago Pena, a 44-year-old economist and former finance minister whose political mentor, ex-president Horacio Cartes, is among those under suspicion.
Pena faces 60-year-old lawyer Efrain Alegre of the Concertacion coalition of center-left parties, who is leading narrowly in opinion polls amid a recent anti-incumbency trend in Latin American elections.
"They (the Colorado party) know that we will win, so they feel nervous," Alegre told AFP this week.
In the last election in 2018, President Mario Abdo Benitez took victory for the Colorado party by a slim margin of less than four percentage points.
Opinion polls indicate this year's race is even closer in a country that only allows a president to serve one term.
Polling group AtlasIntel has placed Alegre in a slight lead with 34.3 percent of voter intention compared to 32.8 percent for Pena. An anti-establishment right-wing party is in third place with 23 percent.
"You don't win with surveys, you don't win with resumes," Pena told AFP.
"You win with the popular vote that manifests itself on election day. I feel very calm, very peaceful knowing that I have given everything humanly possible," he said.
Though they differ on economic policy, the two frontrunners are both socially conservative, holding strong anti-abortion and anti-gay marriage stances in the overwhelmingly Catholic nation.
Paraguayan presidential elections are determined in a single, winner-takes-all round.
Some 4.8 million of the country's 7.5 million inhabitants are eligible to take part in the election, which will also decide the next legislature and choose 17 governors.
The composition of the 45-member Senate will ultimately decide whether the Colorado Party can effectively remain in power -- and whether it can hold onto it with the party split between backers of Cartes and those of Abdo.
"The worst opposition Pena will have, if he wins, will be within his party, not outside it," Paraguayan political analyst Sebastian Acha told AFP.
Apart from corruption, which has angered the population, other issues that are key in the election include an escalating crime problem, poverty and social inequality.
Paraguay's GDP is expected to grow 4.8 percent in 2023, according to the central bank, and 4.5 percent according to the IMF -- one of the highest rates in Latin America.
But poverty affects about a quarter of the population.
"The great problem of Paraguay is not having achieved greater balance in the distribution of income to achieve greater equity," economist Ruben Ramirez of the Trade and Investment Paraguay consultancy in Asuncion told AFP.
Paraguay's Indigenous minority feels especially neglected.
"Paraguay, although it is among the economies that least felt the impact of the pandemic... does not escape being a country where economic inequality continues to exist in its population," added economist Stan Canova.
Many have lost faith in the system.
"I am not interested. We're not going to vote," said Albino Cubas, who shares a ramshackle wooden hut with his wife and three children in the capital's Tacumbu slum.
"I have not seen a serious proposal for the poor," said Cubas.
"We are five minutes from the center (of the capital), from Congress, from the government, and they do not see what is happening here. People without electricity, children loitering... our needs can surely be seen with the naked eye?"
Crime is also a concern, with an anti-mafia prosecutor and a crime-fighting mayor killed in recent months as smuggling cartels settle scores.
Experts say landlocked Paraguay -- nestled between Brazil, Bolivia and Argentina -- has become an important launchpad for drugs headed for Europe.
On the international front, an Alegre win could see Paraguay -- one of Taiwan's 13 remaining diplomatic allies -- shift allegiance to China.
"Relations with Taiwan mean the loss of one of the largest markets, which is China," he told AFP.
nn/mlr/sst
The Barron's news department was not involved in the creation of the content above. This story was produced by AFP. For more information go to AFP.com.
Paraguayans go the polls Sunday for the South American country's closest presidential race in many years, with a center-leftist coalition hoping to end an almost unbroken, seven-decade run for the ruling right-wing Colorado party.
The vote comes at a difficult time for the party that has governed almost continually since the 1950s -- through a dictatorship and since the return of democracy in 1989 -- with several of its leaders recently sanctioned for graft by the United States.
This has complicated the position of the party's presidential candidate Santiago Pena, a 44-year-old economist and former finance minister whose political mentor, ex-president Horacio Cartes, is among those under suspicion.
Pena faces 60-year-old lawyer Efrain Alegre of the Concertacion coalition of center-left parties, who is leading narrowly in opinion polls amid a recent anti-incumbency trend in Latin American elections.
"They (the Colorado party) know that we will win, so they feel nervous," Alegre told AFP this week.
In the last election in 2018, President Mario Abdo Benitez took victory for the Colorado party by a slim margin of less than four percentage points.
Opinion polls indicate this year's race is even closer in a country that only allows a president to serve one term.
Polling group AtlasIntel has placed Alegre in a slight lead with 34.3 percent of voter intention compared to 32.8 percent for Pena. An anti-establishment right-wing party is in third place with 23 percent.
"You don't win with surveys, you don't win with resumes," Pena told AFP.
"You win with the popular vote that manifests itself on election day. I feel very calm, very peaceful knowing that I have given everything humanly possible," he said.
Though they differ on economic policy, the two frontrunners are both socially conservative, holding strong anti-abortion and anti-gay marriage stances in the overwhelmingly Catholic nation.
Paraguayan presidential elections are determined in a single, winner-takes-all round.
Some 4.8 million of the country's 7.5 million inhabitants are eligible to take part in the election, which will also decide the next legislature and choose 17 governors.
The composition of the 45-member Senate will ultimately decide whether the Colorado Party can effectively remain in power -- and whether it can hold onto it with the party split between backers of Cartes and those of Abdo.
"The worst opposition Pena will have, if he wins, will be within his party, not outside it," Paraguayan political analyst Sebastian Acha told AFP.
Apart from corruption, which has angered the population, other issues that are key in the election include an escalating crime problem, poverty and social inequality.
Paraguay's GDP is expected to grow 4.8 percent in 2023, according to the central bank, and 4.5 percent according to the IMF -- one of the highest rates in Latin America.
But poverty affects about a quarter of the population.
"The great problem of Paraguay is not having achieved greater balance in the distribution of income to achieve greater equity," economist Ruben Ramirez of the Trade and Investment Paraguay consultancy in Asuncion told AFP.
Paraguay's Indigenous minority feels especially neglected.
"Paraguay, although it is among the economies that least felt the impact of the pandemic... does not escape being a country where economic inequality continues to exist in its population," added economist Stan Canova.
Many have lost faith in the system.
"I am not interested. We're not going to vote," said Albino Cubas, who shares a ramshackle wooden hut with his wife and three children in the capital's Tacumbu slum.
"I have not seen a serious proposal for the poor," said Cubas.
"We are five minutes from the center (of the capital), from Congress, from the government, and they do not see what is happening here. People without electricity, children loitering... our needs can surely be seen with the naked eye?"
Crime is also a concern, with an anti-mafia prosecutor and a crime-fighting mayor killed in recent months as smuggling cartels settle scores.
Experts say landlocked Paraguay -- nestled between Brazil, Bolivia and Argentina -- has become an important launchpad for drugs headed for Europe.
On the international front, an Alegre win could see Paraguay -- one of Taiwan's 13 remaining diplomatic allies -- shift allegiance to China.
"Relations with Taiwan mean the loss of one of the largest markets, which is China," he told AFP.
nn/mlr/sst
The Barron's news department was not involved in the creation of the content above. This story was produced by AFP. For more information go to AFP.com.
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