Colorado Party leads municipal map in Paraguay and celebrates victory in Asunción

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – According to preliminary data, the ruling party secured 160 mayoralties out of the 261 in dispute, against 64 for the Liberal Party, the opposition’s largest, with 37 won by independent coalitions.

However, president of the Liberals Efraín Alegre, pointed out on social media that the total number of mayoralties for his party amounts to 101 due to its presence in these coalitions.

The triumph in Asunción was celebrated at the Colorado party headquarters with the presence of Óscar Rodríguez, running for reelection, who won with 47.52% of the votes over Liberal Eduardo Nakayama (42.52%), with 99.38% of the votes counted.

Nakayama, who acknowledged defeat, this week filed a criminal complaint against Rodriguez for alleged misappropriation of funds allocated by the Municipality to fight Covid-19.

The liberals were hoping for a punishment vote that would reverse the representation in the Municipality, whose majority of city councilors remained in the hands of Colorados, who branded the accusations as a “dirty campaign.” “I forgive all who offended and insulted us,” said Rodriguez at the celebration ceremony.

In Ciudad del Este, on the border with Brazil and the country’s commercial hub, independent candidate Miguel Prieto remains in the lead for mayor with 63,047 votes (62.27%), with 77.58% of the votes counted. In second place was Ulises Quintana, with 27,179 votes (26.84%).

Prieto won the mayor’s office in 2019 in anticipated elections called after the removal of mayor Sandra McLeod, of the Colorado Party, under investigation for several corruption cases. Quintana had been detained in 2018 in an anti-drug operation in which the alleged head of a drug trafficking network was arrested.

Charged as an alleged accomplice, he conceded that the drug trafficker lent him several vehicles to use in his campaign for the 2018 general elections, in which he ran as a candidate for deputy for Ciudad del Este. He was then held in a military prison and reinstated to his post after an appeals court overturned his pre-trial detention in November 2020.

Another setback for the Colorado party was the vote in touristic Encarnación, on the border with Argentina, where independent Luis Yd was reelected with 56.69% of the vote, over 37.79% for César Rojas.

The results set the political outlook for the 2023 presidential and legislative elections, when Mario Abdo Benítez will leave office.

This will depend on the consensus that the Liberal Party may weave, which is divided into two currents, that of Senator Blas Llano and of Alegre, who will again be running for office.

In this respect, Alegre stated on social media that today the party “is stronger than ever to resist, challenge and win in 2023.”

HIGHER THAN EXPECTED TURNOUT

Turnout was a few tenths below the 60% target set by the Superior Court of Electoral Justice (TSJE).

Its chief, Justice Jaime Bestard, valued this turnout and highlighted “an increase in the percentage of young people showing interest in the civic sphere.”

Bestard said at a press conference that the TSJE complied in due time and form with the disclosure of the results, which were transmitted by the entity through the informal Preliminary Electoral Results Transmission System (TREP).

He also thanked the citizens for their behavior and extended his gratitude to the international missions that acted as electoral observers.

More than 4 million people were called to vote in the elections, the first with unblocked lists and electronic voting machines, to choose between 831 mayors and 15,535 city councilors.