Asunción, May 1 (EFE).- Former governor and senator Fernando Lugo was unable to revalidate his seat in the Upper Chamber of the Paraguayan Senate and his left-wing alliance, the Guasu Front, barely reached a position for the next legislative period, after meeting the provisional results of the general elections held this Sunday.
In these elections, the candidate of the Colorado Party, Santiago Peña, was the clear winner, with 42.93%, seventeen points above his main opponent, the liberal Efraín Alegre (27.52%), according to the provisional results provided. by the Superior Court of Electoral Justice.
Senator Esperanza Martínez will be the only representation of the left in a Senate consolidated by the ruling Colorado Party, which for the first time in history will have its own majority in the Upper House, where it won 23 seats, five more than it had up to now. a sufficient force to approve or reject projects, even sanction or dismiss deputies.
In total, 3,010.65 voters chose the new representatives of the Senate, of which 43.68% will be members of the ruling party, 23.27% will be represented by the Alianza de Senadores por la Patria, and 11% by National Crusade Party, led by the Paraguayan anti-system leader Cubas.
There will be five congressmen for the National Crusade, who managed to gather more than 330,000 votes.
Among the elected candidates is Cubas’ wife, Yolanda Paredes, who added the largest number of votes (140,921) within his political movement.
Another chosen member of the movement led by Cubas is the activist Rafael Esquivel, who was accused of the alleged sexual abuse of a teenager in 2019 and who is being held in a prison in the border city of Ciudad del Este.
Representatives such as Kattya González, one of the most critical voices against corruption and against the ruling Colorado Party, and Celeste Amarilla, from the National Encounter and Senators for the Homeland alliances, respectively, were also re-elected.
The most voted candidate was the official Silvio Ovelar, with 281,752 votes, who will assume his fifth term as parliamentarian of the Upper House.
In the Chamber of Deputies the official majority also prevailed, with 48 seats, five more than the ones it had until yesterday.
The youth of non-traditional parties is the novelty in this election, with the entry of Johanna Ortega, from the País Solidario movement, and Rubén Rubín and Raulito Benítez, from Encuentro Nacional.
Liberal deputies lost eight seats and were left with 21 representatives for the next legislative period.
The new representatives of the Paraguayan Congress will take office on July 1.