Horacio Cartes was elected President of Paraguay.

Color Party candidate Horacio Cartes won Paraguay's presidential election on April 21 to lead the South American country for the next five years.

Announcing the preliminary results of the election, Mr. Alberto Ramírez Zambonini, President of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal of Paraguay (TSJE), said that with 81.6% of the votes counted, Mr. Cartes won 45.91% of the votes, while the candidate of the True Radical Liberal Party, Mr. Efraín Alegre, was supported by 36.85% of voters.

Mr. Alegre accepted defeat to Mr. Cartes.

Mr. Cartes, 56, is a successful businessman but has been accused by political opponents of making a fortune from cigarette smuggling and being involved in drug trafficking.

Mr. Horacio Cartes after voting. (Source: Hcpresidente.com)

Not only in business, he also has a great interest in football as President of Libertad Club. He was the director of the Paraguay national team during the qualifying stage of the 2010 World Cup.

There are 10 candidates running for president, but according to public opinion surveys before the election, only these two right-wing candidates have a chance of winning.

In addition to the presidential election, more than 3.5 million Paraguayan voters are called to vote for the vice president, members of Congress, Paraguay's representative to the Parliament of the Southern Common Market (Parlasur), governors and members of provincial councils.

According to a TSJE official, the voter turnout in this general election is estimated at over 68%. Voting is compulsory in Paraguay.

The election has attracted great interest from South American public opinion because, if recognized as democratic and transparent, it will allow Paraguay to return to the Union of South American Nations (Unasur) and the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) after its membership was suspended following the "parliamentary coup" that overthrew constitutional President Fernando Lugo in June 2012.

Mr. Cartes will take office on August 15. His victory marks the return of right-wing political parties to power in this country of 6.6 million people.

After 61 years in power, the Color Party lost the 2008 election to former Catholic bishop Fernando Lugo. However, the “Bishop for the Poor” was ousted in a political trial for “lack of responsibility in the exercise of his office” in what regional opinion saw as a right-wing coup against his leftist policies.

In this general election, Mr. Lugo, as head of the Guasú Front, a left-wing coalition that brings together about 20 political parties and social organizations, ran for the Senate./.

According to (Vietnam+) - DT