Reply #39: 'Bishop of the poor' takes power in Paraguay

[Judi Lynn]

9.45am BST
'Bishop of the poor' takes power in Paraguay
Allegra Stratton and agencies guardian.co.uk, Monday April 21 2008

A former bishop has ended Paraguay's 61 years of one-party rule, beating the reigning party's candidate to win the country's presidential election.

Late last night, Fernando Lugo, a mild-mannered leftist who quit the clergy three years ago, saying he felt powerless to help Paraguay's poor, was announced as the winner of the elections after some uncertainty.

Lugo had been given 40 - 43% in four separate exit polls earlier in the evening. The ruling Colorado party's candidate, Blanca Ovelar, the first woman to run for president in Paraguay, was on 36 - 38%.

Ovelar, 50, a former education minister and protege of the outgoing president, Nicanor Duarte, at first refused to concede, predicting she would score heavily in rural areas beyond the reach of the exit pollsters. But with Lugo nine points up in partial official counted ballot results, she gave way.

Another candidate, retired army general Lino Oviedo, freed last year after the supreme court overturned a sentence for plotting a coup, was in third place.

"We ask you never to abandon us. We'll make democracy together!" Lugo, bearded, bespectacled 56-year-old, told cheering supporters as firecrackers resounded around Asuncion last night.

More:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/apr/21/4