Paraguayans elect this Sunday a new president and Congress in elections with uncertain results, marked by accusations of corruption against high-ranking figures of the ruling party, and in which the continuity of the relationship with Taiwan has been questioned.
(Read also: How would a conflict between Taiwan and China affect Colombia and the world?)
santiago penaa 44-year-old economist, tries to retain power for the ruling Colorado Party (conservative), against Ephraim Alegrea 60-year-old lawyer who leads the center-left coalition Concertación Nacional.
Minutes before the opening of the polling stations, at 07:00 local (11:00 GMT), both called on the population to vote. “We have the attributes and conditions so that all Paraguayans can be better. Let’s go vote with peace and joy, that the polls be a place of harmony,” Peña said.
for his partAlegre asked the Paraguayans to vote “quietly.” “Do not fall into discouragement. We all have to go to the polls, the greater the participation, the greater the legitimacy of democracy,” he said.
The Colorado Party has governed Paraguay for most of the last seven decades, under dictatorship and under democracy, with a single interruption during the government of leftist Fernando Lugo (2008-12), who was ousted in impeachment a year before finishing his term. mandate.
The current president Mario Abdo, one of the first to vote in Asunción, also urged citizens to vote.
“I hope it will be a democratic and peaceful day. I hope there is the greatest participation and that the one with the most votes wins,” he said. The latest polls show a technical tie between Peña and Alegre.
“Usually at this point, the Colorado Party had guaranteed elections, which is not happening this time. We arrived on election day with a scenario in which anyone could be the winner,” political analyst Sebastián Acha told AFP.
(Read also: With a suffocated Alberto Fernández, the presidential deck is shaken in Argentina)
The presidential election, in a single round, is won with a simple majority for a period of five years without the possibility of immediate re-election.
“Significantly corrupt”
The electoral campaign took place simultaneously with US sanctions against some of the most important Colorado leaderssuch as former president Horacio Cartes (2013-18), a wealthy tobacco businessman, party president and Peña’s political godfather.
Designated in 2022 as “significantly corrupt” by the State Department, which banned him from entering the United States, he was sanctioned in March by the Treasury.
“These accusations, by the time they come out, somehow turn the elections into a plebiscite against or in favor of corruptionAha opined.
Alegre, in any case, has focused his speech on attacking corruption and organized crime. “Our institutions are in danger because of the money from illegality, from organized crime, which buys prosecutors, buys judges, and bribes parliamentarians.
The first task we have is legal security, to restore justice to the country,” he told AFP in a recent interview. Paraguay, in the center of South America, is considered a transit point for drugs to Brazil and Argentina for its departure to Europe and Asia.
in 2022 the anti-mafia prosecutor Marcelo Pecci and the mayor José Carlos Acevedo were assassinatedin crimes attributed to drug trafficking.
employment and poverty
Although Paraguay has one of the fastest growing economies in Latin America -with a forecast of 4.5% of GDP for 2023, According to the International Monetary Fund, poverty reaches 24.7%, with enormous inequalities.
In Asunción, in the flood-prone areas on the banks of the Paraguay River, wooden shacks are multiplying where the most vulnerable live without access to basic services. Peña has proposed creating 500,000 jobs. Alegre advocates incorporating the informal sector, which covers 40% of workers.
Between Taiwan and Jerusalem
Controversial foreign policy issues were also touched on in the campaign. Alegre insisted on analyzing the continuity of Paraguay’s diplomatic ties with Taiwan. “Relations with Taiwan mean the loss of one of the biggest markets, which is China.Paraguay makes a very important effort, a very big resignation, to have relations with Taiwan, but we are not seeing the same effort from Taiwan,” he said.
Meanwhile, Peña once again raised the issue of recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, announcing his willingness to move the headquarters of his embassy to that city again, a measure that, in line with Donald Trump, Cartes had taken at the end of his government. and that Abdo reversed.
“I would go back to Jerusalem. I am convinced that there are Christian reasons and also political reasons. The State of Israel recognizes Jerusalem as its capital. The seat of Congress is in Jerusalem, the president is in Jerusalem. So who are we to question where do they establish their own capital?” Peña told AFP.
AFP
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