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Paraguay ruling party picks woman in race

Paraguayan President Nicanor Duarte, left, and former education minister Blanca Ovelar wave to supporters during the proclamation of Ovelar's candidacy for the presidency at the Colorado Party headquarters in Asuncion, Paraguay, on Monday. PHOTO: EPA

Paraguay's ruling party nominated a woman as its presidential candidate on Monday, a first for the South American nation, but the candidacy of Education Minister Blanca Ovelar faces a court challenge.

The Colorado Party's official nomination of Ovelar as its candidate in the April 20 presidential election came more than a month after a razor-thin primary that was challenged by Vice President Luis Castiglione.

The party's electoral commission said on Monday that Ovelar won the Dec. 16 contest with 45.04 percent support, compared with 44.5 percent for Castiglione, who is challenging the result.

Ovelar, 50, dismissed objections to her victory.

"Our campaign aims now at the election in April," she told reporters. "Our platform gives priority to the fight against poverty and to the creation of jobs."

"Let's us act without insults, without revenge, so that all of us together can win the general election," she told supporters outside her campaign headquarters on Monday night.

"It was a cruel primary campaign, but it's over," she said. "I now announce that for the first time in Paraguay's history a woman will be the president."

Castiglione is vowing to go to court to undo her nomination.

"The government has found a criminal way to twist the results by manipulating the process through corrupt judges," he said in a statement. "I do not recognize and I will never accept my alleged defeat because I have proof that 30,000 votes cast for me were stolen."

The Colorado candidate will run against Fernando Lugo, a left-leaning former Catholic bishop who draws support from the nation's large Indian population, and former army commander Cesar Lino Oviedo, a charismatic retired general once jailed for plotting a coup.

If elected, Ovelar will succeed Nicanor Duarte, whose Colorado Party has ruled uninterrupted for 47 years. She also would be the third sitting female president in Latin America, along with Michelle Bachelet in Chile and Cristina Fernandez in Argentina.

Duarte called upon Castiglione to concede to Ovelar.

"Luis, you are watching me on television," he told his former vice president. "You conducted a great campaign with total support from the media and landowners, but Blanca won the vote."
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