![]() ![]() All I know is we have to work much harder to make ends meet." "There's more corruption in Paraguay than work. "We're going backwards, that is how I feel," said Nicolas Ortigoza, 32, as he served chicken skewers at his stall. The fiscal deficit ballooned to 3% of GDP last year, average annual growth in the last four years dipped to 0.7%, and extreme poverty has risen. "There's an air of change, the people have woken up."Īt the bustling Mercado 4 street market in Asuncion, most cited the tough economic situation. "We never talked about politics before, because a win for the Colorado Party was a done deal," 40-year-old bank worker Gustavo Vera told Reuters in the capital. But persistent corruption allegations have led to cracks appearing in their support. The ruling Colorado Party has dominated Paraguayan politics for the last three-quarters of a century, in power for all but five years. Pollsters see a tight race, even a technical tie. ![]() The farming nation of just under 7 million people will go to the polls to vote in what is expected to be a close contest between the slick, 44-year-old economist Santiago Pena representing the incumbent conservative Colorado Party and the 60-year-old political veteran Efrain Alegre leading a broad center-left coalition and pledging a foreign policy shake-up. ![]() ASUNCION, April 28 (Reuters) - In the heart of Paraguay's capital Asuncion, a tropical city close to the Argentine border, voters are gearing up for election day on Sunday, with the economy, corruption and Taiwan on their minds. ![]()
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