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 Court 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 polls before the election, only these two right-wing candidates are likely to win.

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

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

The election has attracted great interest from the South American public 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 being suspended from membership 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,” which was widely seen in the region 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 of about 20 political parties and social organizations, ran for the Senate./.

According to (Vietnam+) - DT