Monday, January 21, 2008

A “presidenta” for Paraguay?

Paraguay’s ruling party selected Education Minister Blanca Ovelar as its presidential candidate. Ovelar’s candidacy faced a court challenge from within the Colorado Party yet that appeared to be defeated earlier today.

Should Ovelar win in April’s elections she would be the first woman elected to Paraguay’s presidency. Though the Colorado party is currently the world’s longest ruling at 47 years, Ovelar faces an uphill battle as corruption allegations have hurt president Nicanor Duarte and Paraguayans lean increasingly towards the opposition.

Argentina’s Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner and Chile’s Michelle Bachelet are the only two current female presidents in Latin America.

Image- CNN (“Blanca Ovelar holds up a dyed finger after voting last month in the Colorado Party's internal elections.”)

Sources (English)- miamiherald.com, Wikipedia, Angus Reid Consultants, Al Jazeera, The Latin Americanist

sources (Spanish)- ABC Digital, Ultima Hora

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Though the Colorado party has been the world’s longest ruling at 47 years"

The above is debatable...the PRI ruled in Mexico for over 70 years.

Erwin C. said...

The sentence was fixed and should reflect the fact that the Colorado Party is currently the world's longest ruling political party.

Yes, the PRI did rule the presidency for 70 years in Mexico but that ended with the election of Vicente Fox in 2000.