Paraguay’s long-ruling Colorado Party has easy election win

By DÉBORA REY
Associated Press

ASUNCIÓN, Paraguay (AP) — Paraguayans have voted overwhelmingly to keep the long-ruling Colorado Party in power for five more years, backing its presidential candidate and giving it majorities in both houses of Congress. Economist Santiago Peña has 43% of the votes in a preliminary count from Sunday’s election, with nearly all voting places reporting. That is far ahead of the 27% held by his closest challenger, Efraín Alegre of a broad-based opposition coalition that had united in an effort to bring to an end Colorado’s seven-decade stranglehold on power. The opposition bloc had been optimistic it was going to be able to win votes due to widespread unhappiness over corruption and failures in the health and education systems, which took center stage during the COVID-19 pandemic.