The candidate of the ruling Colorado Party, Santiago Peña, became the president-elect of Paraguay this Sunday, with 42.93 percent over the liberal opposition Efraín Alegre (27.52%), according to the provisional results of the Superior Court of Justice electoral (TSJE).
With 94.74 percent of the tables processed and a participation of 63.11 percent, the electoral entity demanded that Peña and his running mate, Pedro Alliana, added 1,255,104 votes. For its part, Alegre reached 785,338 votes
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«We congratulate the Paraguayan people for their civic maturity and democratic conviction,» declared the president of the TSJE, Jorge Bogarín, in his speech.
Congratulations to the Paraguayan people for their great participation in this election day and to the president-elect @SantiPenap. We will work to initiate an orderly and transparent transition that strengthens our institutions and the country’s democracy.
— Marito Abdo (@MaritoAbdo) April 30, 2023
Peña, will renounce power for the Colorado Party, despite its strong divisions, amid accusations of corruption against its main leaders. At 44 years old, this was the first time that Peña participated in a national election.
His only previous experience had been when in 2017 he lost the presidential nomination in the Colorado primaries against the current president Mario Abdo. tall and athletic Peña is considered a technocrat with a brilliant academic career but little political experience.to.
His entry into politics came from the hand of former president Horacio Cartes (2013-18), today sanctioned by the United States as «significantly corrupt», who affiliated him with the Colorado Party and had him as Minister of Economy.
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To attack him, his adversaries call him «the secretary of Cartes». But he seems unaffected. «He is someone very serene, his tranquility is impressive,» one of his collaborators told AFP.
Taiwan, Jerusalem, employment, dictatorship
Pena has said that will preserve diplomatic relations with Taiwandespite the questioning of productive sectors, especially agribusiness and livestock, which ask to open exports to China.
He also assured that he is united by «an enormous bond of brotherhood with Israel» and that he intends to move the Paraguayan embassy to Jerusalem again, a measure that Cartes had taken at the end of his government in line with Donald Trump and that the current president Mario Abdo reversed. .
Although he did not present a government program during the campaign, one of his main promises was the creation of 500,000 jobs.
And in a country that suffered one of the longest dictatorships in Latin America, that of Alfredo Stroessner (1954-89), it has been criticized for declaring that he brought «stability» to the country. «I think Stroessner is breaking the cycle of political instability,» he told AFP.
«Unfortunately, many freedoms and human rights were curtailed, under the pretext of stability,» he completed.
AFP
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