Santiago Pena wins Paraguay election: election body

Paraguayans voted Sunday for a President they hope will tackle endemic corruption, crime and poverty in elections with possible consequences for ties with Taiwan and Israel

Paraguayans on Sunday elected a president from the rightwing Colorado Party, in power for nearly eight decades, the electoral body said, as voters rejected a center-left challenger who had railed against institutional corruption.

Economist and former finance minister Santiago Pena, 44, won the election with more than 42% of votes cast, results showed, with 90% of ballots counted.

Sixty-year-old challenger Efrain Alegre of the Concertacion center-left coalition garnered 27.5% despite having had a narrow lead in opinion polls ahead of Sunday’s vote.

The Colorado Party has governed almost continually since 1947 — through a dictatorship and since the return of democracy in 1989, but has been tainted by corruption claims.

Pena’s political mentor, ex-president and Colorado Party leader Horacio Cartes, was recently sanctioned by the United States over graft.

Some 4.8 million of Paraguay’s 7.5 million inhabitants were eligible to vote Sunday for a president to replace Mario Abdo Benitez, leaving office after a constitutionally limited single term, in a single-round, winner-takes all election.

They also voted for new lawmakers.