The voting centers opened this Sunday in Paraguay in a democratic day that will have its main focus on the bid for
the Presidency between the pro-government Santiago Peña and the liberal opposition Efraín Alegre
.
The elections started with some complaints from political party leaders about the location of the polling stations, which did not go any further.
In this Sunday's election, the Paraguayans will designate the successor to President Mario Abdo Benítez, from the ruling Colorado Party.
They will also vote to elect their vice president, the members of Congress, the governors of the 17 departments of the country and the members of the departmental boards.
A woman votes in the elections this Sunday in Paraguay.
Photo.
REUTERS/Agustin Marcarian
Coloradismo, which
has governed the country for the last seven decades
-except during the government of the now progressive senator Fernando Lugo (2008-2012)-, is risking its continuity in power before a coalition of left-wing movements and parties, the Concertación National, headed by Alegre.
The polls that circulated in the previous days through social networks anticipated
a technical tie between Peña and Alegre
.
In addition, the Paraguayan candidate Cubas, who defines himself as anti-system, appeared in third place.
Prior to the opening of the tables, the Superior Court of Electoral Justice (TSJE) invited citizens to participate in elections that in this country do
not have a second round
.
"We are ready to live and enjoy a great civic day. We invite citizens to go out and vote, to participate with democratic conviction, which is already a tradition in the Republic of Paraguay," said the president of the TSJE, Jorge Bogarín, who celebrated that "the great day has arrived".
Mario Abdo Benítez, accompanied by his Minister of the Interior, cast his vote at the beginning of the day in a school in Asunción.
The Colorado Party candidate for the Presidency of Paraguay, Santiago Peña, assured this Sunday, before the opening of the general elections, that "every vote of every Paraguayan and every Paraguayan counts."
"Today we define a country model, we choose if we want a Paraguay that will bet more on its human capital or we will again lose the enormous opportunity to grow by promoting the economic and social well-being of our people," said the former economist, from the headquarters of the Colorado Party , in Asunción.
In a message read before the press, followers, and the head of coloradismo, former president Horacio Cartes (2013-2018), assured that on this day "a Paraguay that plans its future to take the great leap that we need or a country that navigates in improvisation".
Meanwhile, Abdo Benítez, this Sunday called on his compatriots to vote and be protagonists "in the construction of the future" of the nation.
"The more participation there is, the more the electoral process is legitimized and the elected authorities come out with more force," said the president shortly after casting his vote in a college in Asunción.
In this context, he invited to take care of the country and indicated that, despite the difficulties that it has like any Latin American society, Paraguay "is internationally recognized as a country that has been building macroeconomic strength, predictability" and has a democracy that "It has been consolidating."