election drama

2008 is also an election year in Paraguay. Interestingly, the general election for President is set for Sunday April 20, just 2 days after I officially close out my service, and I wonder if I want to stay to see what happens or get outta here in time. Here each political party has their own nation-wide primary elections, for president and also governor and senator and whatever other departmental offices, all on one day. The Liberales held their primaries a while ago, it went fine (this is the opposition party that for the first time won a bunch of mayoral elections last year, including Tacuati). But the Colorado elections a few weeks back were more problematic. There are two leading candidates: a guy named Castiglione whose slogan is “Castiglione is change”, and then Blanca Ovelar, a female candidate who is the overwhelming establishment choice, apparently having been hand-picked by Nicanor, the current President. Her slogan is “Add yourself to the victory,” which I think is a weird echo of some of the bits I’ve read of Hilary Clinton’s campaign, trying to make herself the candidate of inevitability. Anyway, Castiglione lost by a fraction of 1%, and with reported voting irregularities is challenging the results in court. This is a huge deal – I hadn’t expected him to get many votes at all, considering how powerful the Blanca force seems to be – and may represent an opportunity for real change in Paraguay if he wins. I’m not sure exactly where things stand now, but there is a sort of constitutional crisis as the politickos are trying to figure out what to do next. At some point there’ll be a deadline for the Colorados to have their candidate on the April ballot. From way out here in Tacuati, where we don’t even get a daily newspaper, it’s hard to keep up on current events, but friends with tvs usually fill me in on the important stuff (Obama’s candidacy was apparently featured on the news a few nights ago).