Asuncion (AFP) – Economist and former finance minister Santiago Pena celebrates the general election victory at the rightwing Colorado party’s headquarters in Asuncion, Paraguay. Sixty-year-old challenger Efrain Alegre of the Concertacion center-left coalition garnered nearly 27.5 percent despite having gone into the vote with a narrow lead in opinion polls. The outcome bucked a recent anti-incumbency trend in Latin American elections with voters repeatedly punishing establishment parties, often in favor of leftist rivals.
