Europe News Desk!!! Paraguay’s top electoral court has confirmed that Santiago Peña, the candidate of the ruling Colorado party, has won the presidential election. The 44-year-old economist and former finance minister received nearly 43 percent of the vote, with more than 96 percent of ballots counted, according to the Superior Court of Electoral Justice. He is well ahead of his main rival, Efrain Alegre, who was the coalition’s candidate for New Paraguay. Alegre won 27.5 percent of the vote. Peña will replace President Mario Abdo Benitez of the Colorado Party to govern for the next five years. In Sunday’s elections, the legislature’s 45 senators and 80 representatives were also elected.
According to the court, voter participation was 63.13 per cent. About 4.8 million of the South American country’s 7.5 million people were eligible to vote in the election. Thank you for this Colorado victory, thank you for this Paraguay victory,” Pena said. He said, today we are not celebrating individual victory, we are celebrating the victory of those who, with their votes, chose the path of social peace, dialogue, fraternity and national reconciliation. Admitting defeat, Allegre said the effort was not enough. The Colorado Party has ruled Paraguay almost continuously since 1947 through a dictatorship and since the return of democracy in 1989.
–IANS
PK/SKP
World News Desk!!!