Ex-bishop looking to end one-party rule in Paraguay

Former Roman Catholic bishop Fernando Lugo asked thousands of supporters at his final campaign rally on Thursday to help him end 61 years of one-party rule in Paraguay and to build a new nation for the poor and indigenous.

The center-left presidential candidate sometimes called the “Bishop of the Poor” faces former education minister Blanca Ovelar of the long-ruling Colorado Party in tomorrow’s election.

Polls show Lugo heading into the vote with a narrow lead.

“The bandits remain among us but there’s good news: those who have hijacked the dreams of our people have only three days left!” the 56-year-old Lugo told about 15,000 raucous supporters in Asuncion’s main plaza. He spoke in Spanish and the Indian language, Guarani.

Amid crackling fireworks and shouts of “Ole, Ole Lugo,” the former bishop railed against endemic corruption and called on the poor majority, including Indians and farming peasants, to choose “a new country.”

Ovelar held her final campaign rally on Wednesday night in the same plaza and said she would have a “resounding victory” in today’s race to succeed Paraguayan President Nicanor Duarte for a five-year term.

“I know what the people need and I know what has to be done,” Ovelar told the rally.

A victory by Lugo would end 61 years of uninterrupted Colorado Party rule and make him the first former bishop to be elected president of his South American country.

“Sixty-one years, isn’t that enough?” asked Hilda Espinola, who wore a Lugo T-shirt at the rally.