With more than 99% of the votes counted, the official candidate Santiago Peña of the Colorado ANR party defeated the opposition duo of Efraín Alegre and Sole Núñez (National Concertation), the 27, 49%, the Superior Court of Electoral Justice (TSJE) announced.
In third place is the Paraguayan Senator Cubas (National Crusade) with 22.93% of the vote. Also, the TSJE reported that the turnout was 63.22% while there were 13,109 invalid votes and 67,944 blank votes.
In Paraguay there is no second ballot, which means that the president and vice-president are elected by a simple majority of votes. The victory of Peña and his comrade-in-arms Pedro Alliana confirms the continuity of power of the historic Colorado Party, which has ruled uninterruptedly since 1943, including the period of the Alfredo Stroessner dictatorship (1954-1989), with the exception of the presidency of the progressive Fernando Lugo (2008-2012) , who was eventually fired.
Before the official count of votes ended, the outgoing President Mario Abdo Benítez Peña congratulated on his election victory and thanked the people for the “great turnout”. “We will work to initiate an orderly and transparent transition that strengthens our institutions and the country’s democracy,” he tweeted.
For his part, former president of the nation and leader of the Colorado Party, Horacio Cartes, also joined in the congratulatory messages. “All our support and confidence in his future management, who are in charge of such an important responsibility,” he said.