PARAGUAY: Millionaire businessman Horacio Cartes, the frontrunner in Paraguay's presidential election, casts his vote in the capital, Asuncion

Record ID: 450651

  • Title: PARAGUAY: Millionaire businessman Horacio Cartes, the frontrunner in Paraguay's presidential election, casts his vote in the capital, Asuncion
  • Date: 22nd April 2013
  • Summary: ASUNCION, PARAGUAY (APRIL 21, 2013) (REUTERS) **CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY** VARIOUS OF ELECTION OBSERVERS FROM EUROPEAN UNION PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE HORACIO CARTES ARRIVING TO CAST HIS VOTE VARIOUS OF CARTES AT POLLING STATION SURROUNDED BY MEDIA CARTES FILLING IN VOTING SLIP IN BOOTH VARIOUS OF CARTES DIPPING HIS FINGER IN INK CARTES CASTING BALLOT CARTES WALKING THROUGH CROWD OF REPORTERS
  • Embargoed: 7th May 2013 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Paraguay
  • Country: Paraguay
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA7TTCR50VA01F456FIHB5ORJ9I
  • Story Text: Paraguayans went to the polls on Sunday (April 21) in a presidential election that could return the centre-right Colorado Party to power less than a year after the nation's leftist leader was impeached.
    Millionaire businessman Horacio Cartes, 56, is the Colorado Party candidate and front-runner in the race, most polls show. A political novice, he vows to reform his party, which was tainted by corruption during its 60-year reign through 2008.
    His main rival is Efrain Alegre, a 50-year-old lawyer and career politician in the ruling center-right Liberal Party, which took over the presidency after withdrawing support for President Fernando Lugo and clearing the way for his impeachment in June.
    Congress ousted Lugo, a leftist and former Roman Catholic bishop, after finding him guilty of mishandling a botched land eviction that killed 17 police officers and peasant farmers. Some of Paraguay's neighbours saw the two-day trial as tantamount to a coup and imposed diplomatic sanctions on the South American nation.
    Nearly 40 percent of Paraguay's 6.6 million people are poor. Located in the heart of the continent, the country relies on soybean and beef exports, but is also notorious for contraband trade and illicit financing.
    One of Paraguay's wealthiest men, Cartes made his fortune in the financial and tobacco industries. Rivals have tried to link him to drug running and money laundering, but he has never been convicted of a crime and denies any wrongdoing.
    Brash and outspoken, Cartes won support for his candidacy even though he never voted before joining the Colorado Party in 2009.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2013. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register