Ex-bishop wins Paraguay vote but may need to cut deals

By Daniela Desantis

ASUNCION (Reuters) - A sandal-wearing former bishop's presidential election victory suggests Paraguay's democracy has matured, but after 61 years of one-party rule his political foes may dictate the pace of change.

Fernando Lugo, a mild-mannered leftist who quit the cloth three years ago saying he felt powerless to help Paraguay's poor, ousted the ruling Colorado Party in Sunday's election with promises to tackle inequality and stamp out corruption.

"We'll make democracy together!" the bearded, bespectacled 56-year-old former Roman Catholic bishop told cheering supporters on Sunday night, promising to put the poor first.

"It is the people who will build a democracy we Paraguayans deserve," he told Canal 13 television early on Monday.

Local media trumpeted Lugo's victory. Daily newspaper ABC carried a banner headline proclaiming "a dirty and degrading transition" under the Colorado Party had finally been buried. Two other newspapers led with the headline "Amen!".

Lugo calls himself an independent and has steered clear of Latin America's more radical left-wing leaders, such as Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Evo Morales in Bolivia.

He is however seen as a likely ally of moderate leftist presidents in the region, which has steadily turned away from the right-wing dictatorships, extremely corrupt governments and Marxist rebellions that were so prevalent in the late 20th century.

Lugo will take office on August 15 and has vowed to carry out agrarian reform to ensure poor peasant farmers can till their own land in a country where a small, wealthy elite owns the vast majority of farmland and cattle ranches.

"If you have a left candidate who is clearly identified with the poor ... and if he can break the grip of the longest ruling party in the world, a right wing party, I think it shows how much South America has changed and how much democracy has taken hold," said Mark Weisbrot of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a U.S. think tank.

But no one party was expected to win a majority in Congress, and that will likely force Lugo to cut deals with rivals if he hopes to get his proposals passed.

"We don't know how much Lugo is going to change the government, or how much he can," Weisbrot said, noting the Colorado Party's powerful machine at every level of government.

"It will depend on what their response is. Are they going to play by the rules of democracy?"

A GOOD START

The decision of Colorado Party candidate Blanca Ovelar, who was bidding to be Paraguay's first female president, to concede defeat as results showed Lugo with about 41 percent of the vote and a lead of 10 percentage points, was a good start.

Outgoing President Nicanor Duarte Frutos called the poll historic.