Paraguay: election ends six decades of one-party rule

Winning nearly 41 percent of the vote, Lugo failed to achieve an absolute majority, but led his nearest competitor, Colorado Party candidate and former education minister Blanca Ovelar, by 10 points. Lino Oviedo, a former general who shortly before the election was released from jail where he was serving a 10 year sentence for a 1996 coup attempt, placed third, with nearly 22 percent of the vote.

Incumbent President Nicanor Duarte was prevented by lawa statute that he had unsuccessfully sought to overturnfrom running for a second five-year term. While conceding Lugos victory, he vowed that his former ruling party would seek a return to power as early as possible. This is no idle threat.

In the new parliament, it appears that the Colorado Party will hold more seats in both houses than Lugos Patriotic Alliance for Change (APC), which is dominated by the center-right Authentic Radical Liberal Partywhich supplied the vice presidential candidateand includes a hodgepodge of nominally leftist and indigenous organizations.