2023-05-01 12:10:01
ASUNCIÓN, May 1 (Archyde.com) – Pro-government candidate Santiago Peña won Paraguay’s presidential election on Sunday and in his victory speech called for unity following a turbulent campaign with internal conflicts and allegations of corruption in the conservative Colorado Party.
Peña, a 44-year-old economist, was ahead of the opposition Efraín Alegre by regarding 15 points with 98% of the tables counted, according to the Superior Court of Electoral Justice (TSJE). He obtained 42.75% of the votes compared to 27.48% for Alegre.
“We have a lot to do, following the last years of economic stagnation, of fiscal deficit, the task that awaits us is not for a single person or for a party,” Peña said at the Colorado Party headquarters.
“I call for unity, consensus, the time has come to postpone our differences to prioritize the common causes that unite us as a nation,” he added along with the group’s staff while his followers celebrated in the streets.
The opposition lost ground with the advance of Paraguayo Cubas, a controversial leader from the area of the Triple Border with Brazil and Argentina, who declares himself an anarchist and accumulated around 22% of the votes.
“We have made a significant effort to unite all sectors to produce change and today the results show us that the effort we have made may not have been enough,” said Alegre.
“The division has made it so that we cannot reach the goal of being able to produce the change that the majority of Paraguayans are asking of us (…) united, yes we are the majority, but we have to be united,” he added.
The difficult economic situation faced by many Paraguayans following the COVID-19 pandemic and the rise in prices due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as well as rampant corruption, were the central issues of the campaign.
“Congratulations to the president-elect of Paraguay @SantiPenap for his victory in the elections. Good luck in his tenure. Let’s work together for better and stronger relations between our countries,” Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said on Twitter.
Paraguay’s traditionally stable economy, which depends on exports of soybeans, beef and electricity, grew just 0.2% last year and inflation was 8.1%. The new government will have to adjust to avoid a further expansion of the fiscal deficit, which amounted to 3.0% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2022.
Argentine President Alberto Fernández also congratulated the winner. “I communicated by phone with the president-elect @SantiPenap, whom I congratulated on his victory in Paraguay. I affectionately greet all our brother people and I wish them a great future. Latin America must unite, integration is the way, ”he said on Twitter.
A QUIET CHOICE
Peña, whose party has ruled the country for the past seven decades with the exception of a brief period between 2008 and 2013, promised “more money in the pockets” of Paraguayans by creating jobs and formalizing the economy.
“We have prepared to win (…) the party has deployed more than 70,000 electoral agents throughout the country,” Peña said at the time of voting, in a day that passed calmly and with a high turnout, but complaints regarding the delays.
Some analysts believe that he will replicate the policies of his mentor, former President Horacio Cartes, who promoted public works with external debt and public-private alliances but paid less attention to social programs.
“I did not want to vote, I feel everything is in decline. But not voting makes me part of the problem and I want there to be more opportunities for young people to work,” said Fiorella Moreno, 23, as she left a packed polling station early in the morning in a middle-class neighborhood of the capital.
The Colorado Party came to the election on Sunday hit by internal conflicts and allegations of US government corruption once morest its leader Cartes.
“The colorado is always colorado. He cannot betray another of the same color,” said Eugenio Centurión, 65, while speaking with fellow believers outside the Nuestra Señora de la Asunción school in the capital.
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