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Observers predict clean vote in Paraguay
May 9, 1998
Web posted at: 9:09 p.m. EDT (0109 GMT) ASUNCION, Paraguay (CNN) -- Whatever the outcome of Paraguay's presidential election Sunday, the winner will have been chosen by a fair vote of the people, election observers say.Officials of the Organization of American States (OAS) met the two presidential candidates -- an engineer and an economist -- on Saturday to ensure a clean vote.
About 2 million of the country's nearly 5 million citizens are eligible to cast ballots in the election, which could force the ruling Colorado Party out of the top post after half a century.
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OAS chief Cesar Gaviria said after meeting the candidates he was "convinced the elections will be calm and the winning ticket will express the wish of the majority of the Paraguayan people."
Campaigning ended Friday with a tight presidential race between Raul Cubas, 54, an electrical engineer who represents the right-wing Colorados, and Domingo Laino, 63, a leader of the opposition Democratic Alliance who has lost two prior presidential bids.
The winner of the simple-majority vote is to remain in office for the next five years.
Civic groups and the Roman Catholic church urged Paraguayans not to be bribed by a few dollars into "selling" their identity cards, which allow them to vote, to rival party thugs.
Radio messages pleaded: "Men and women of Paraguay, don't sell your ID cards, not for all the gold in the world."
Jailed candidate, allegations of fraud
As recently as a year ago, Paraguay looked as if it would remain a democracy in name only.
At the time, the Colorados chose army chief Gen. Lino Oviedo as their candidate, to the fury of President Juan Carlos Wasmosy. Oviedo was later jailed for instigating a 1996 coup attempt against Wasmosy. Party members then threatened to stop the elections over alleged fraud.
Cubas, Oviedo's running mate, joined the race after the general's 10-year sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court in April.
Democratic Alliance candidate Domingo Laino, right, greets OAS chief Cesar Gaviria Wasmosy, who in April had threatened to lead "Colorado hordes" to stop the vote, on Friday praised the "fiesta" climate and prayed for "no more hatred and bitterness" in Paraguay after Sunday's polls.
Alliance candidate Laino, who was exiled in 1982 for openly opposing then-Paraguayan dictator Gen. Alfredo Stroessner, ran unsuccessfully for president twice after returning to the country in 1987. Stroessner was ousted in a palace coup in 1989 after ruling for more than three decades.
Laino has said he was robbed of victory in 1993 by ballot fraud. But on Saturday he forecast: "Tomorrow we are going to have normal elections as we have never had in this country."
The last opinion polls gave Cubas a slight edge. Laino predicted that undecided voters would favor him.
'The election will reflect the people's will'
Although the Colorado Party has ruled Paraguay since 1947, party loyalists were wary of the vote count. The country's High Electoral Court is controlled by the Democratic Alliance.
Colorado Party candidate Raul Cubas in his office Saturday But after meeting the OAS' Gaviria Saturday, Cubas expressed support for the electoral process.
"We are confident that the result of the election will reflect the people's will," Cubas said.
The Colorados' vice presidential hopeful Luis Argana, party chief and once Stroessner's heir apparent, said provocatively that he was already drawing up "a 25-year government plan."
The Colorados, literally the "Red Party," have their power base in poor rural areas, the armed forces and civil servants. About 48 percent of Paraguay's registered voters are card-carrying Colorado party members.
Paraguay is a member of the Mercosur trade bloc with Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay but cannot shake off a reputation for smuggling, money-laundering and corruption linking the Colorado government to the army and business.
Asuncion's cathedral held a Mass on Friday to pray for a clean vote, but not a single Colorado candidate went. "It's terrible they didn't come, terrible," Laino said outside the church.
Whoever wins has a tough choice about what to do with Oviedo. The options are to free the cavalry general and watch him mobilize huge support among Colorados in Congress, or leave him in jail and face the fury of the "Colorado hordes."
Cubas has promised to free Oviedo, whom he calls a "political prisoner," but rules out a pardon because "it implies a sin."
Reuters contributed to this report.
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