ASUNCION—A former Roman Catholic bishop could end more than 60 years of one-party rule in Paraguay's presidential election on Sunday and join the growing ranks of leftist leaders in Latin America.
Fernando Lugo left the priesthood to lead a center-left coalition to the presidency. Polls show him with a narrow advantage over the ruling Colorado Party candidate, Blanca Ovelar, and retired army general Lino Oviedo.
The vote will be a referendum on the world's longest-ruling party still in power.
Lugo and many ordinary Paraguayans fear the Colorados could buy votes and bribe election officials to stay in office, while outgoing President Nicanor Duarte Frutos warns that leftist foreign "agitators" could take up arms in Paraguay if Lugo loses.
The poor, landlocked South American country holds just one round of balloting. The candidate who gets the most votes wins.
"When we timidly entered the political arena, we said a change would come to Paraguay no matter what, that it's unstoppable, and it didn't matter to us whether it happened in 2008, 2013, 2030 or 2050. But it had to happen sometime," Lugo said on Wednesday in televised remarks to supporters.
The Colorado Party has dominated Paraguay's recent political history, taking power in 1947 and later backing Alfredo Stroessner's 35-year dictatorship until helping to oust him in 1989.
Leftist parties have drawn little support in the conservative country and Lugo calls himself an independent.
He has steered clear of South America's more radical leftist leaders, such as Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Bolivia's Evo Morales, but he would likely align himself with center-left presidents in Brazil, Argentina and Chile.
"Paraguayan politics has never been a battle between left and right. It has always been a contest between Colorados and Liberals," said Alvaro Caballero, an analyst at Paraguay's Development Information and Resource Center, referring to the historic Liberal Party, which is backing Lugo.
"Lugo is somewhat of a spokesman for those who don't feel included in the power structure or economy. If that means he's a leftist, well then he is, but he's not a leftist ideologue," Caballero said.
Contraband
A country of 5.6 million people, Paraguay relies on agricultural and hydroelectric power exports to fuel its economy.
It is also known for pervasive corruption and a large contraband business in illegal imports and exports of electronics, cigarettes, alcohol and even weapons.
Ovelar, the first woman to run for president of Paraguay, describes herself as an opposition figure within the Colorado Party who can modernize and clean up the government.
"As a woman true to her principles ... I don't get upset when I'm blamed for the Colorado movement's sins of the last 60 years. If I were to heap all the Church's sins onto Lugo, he wouldn't be able to dig himself out," Ovelar said at her closing campaign rally, where tens of thousands of people created a "red tide" by wearing the party's signature color.
Ovelar told Reuters earlier in the week that she would admit defeat if she lost the election by "just one vote," adding that she demanded the same of her opponents.
Most polls show Oviedo in third place ahead of Sunday's contest. He jumped into the race last year after the Supreme Court overturned his 10-year prison sentence for plotting a coup in the mid-1990s.
Popular with poor Paraguayans seeking a new strongman leader, Oviedo has pledged to respect the result at the ballot box.
While six decades of Colorado Party rule could end on Sunday, some Paraguayans are skeptical about the prospects of real change.
"All presidents make promises when they take office but they don't follow through," said Ignacia Gomez de Rojas, 47, who sells sandwiches on the street for 25 cents apiece. "There's nothing free here, no free medication or education, nothing. This barely feeds my family."
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