Elections in Paraguay

An IFLRY delegation of 25 people visited Paraguay from 26th April until 12th May 1993. Everyone was hoping, that on 9th May the countries first truly free and democratic elections would take place. The reality was different, even though the elections mark an important step in Paraguays way to a democratic society. This article tries to reflect the experiences of the IFLRY delegation and gathers some information from the publications listed in the end. It does not aim at an overall neutrality, admittedly it makes judgments. Judgments which are necessary if one strives for democratisation and human rights.

Short History

Paraguay was ruled by Spain from the 16th century until it became independent in May 1811. Since then, the country has known mainly dictatorship and oppression. The only exception was a short spell in the beginning of the 20th century. On 6th May 1954 general Stroessner seized power in a military coup. His regime enforced a state of emergency, which maintained for the next 33 years. Stroessner and the Colorado party took control not only of all government institutions and public services on every level, but also of the trade unions, the media, and the education system. The church remained silent until 1969 when a church statement criticised human rights violations.

A well functioning system of oppression was quickly established. Domingo Laino for example was detained and tortured repeatedly, the first time in 1956 and for the last time a few weeks before the fall of Stroessner. In 1978 the regime only admitted to having kidnapped him after interventions by the Carter administration. From 1982 to 1987 he was banished from the country after having been deported to Argentina. In the beginning of the seventies a opposition movement was founded within the Colorado party: Mopoco, Moviemento Popular Colorado. Mopoco was oppressed extremely brutally. Unknown numbers of opposition activists have been persecuted, detained, tortured and murdered in the years of Stroessners regime. Many of those disappeared in Paraguay or Argentina and were never heard of again. Amnesty International talks about an average of several hundred people per year and stresses, that in certain periods, as for example in 1975/76 thousands of people were unlawfully arrested, tortured or persecuted. The entire scope of oppression still has to be investigated. Rodriguez and others involved in the regime did everything to hide the records, but shortly before the elections the so called archives of horror were discovered. The archives of horror, now filling several rooms in the palace of justice, are official police and army reports giving evidence of years of human rights violations. Still, until the eighties Stroessners power was not really endangered. Different factors contributed to this situation: more than close relations with the military, some economic growth in the seventies, a well established and functioning system of corruption and good relations with the neighbouring countries, all being dictatorships as well. Appalling was also the total absence of international pressure. On the contrary, most western democracies cooperated with the regime. The USA was involved in the persecution of opposition at least in the seventies as well as for example Germany educated Stroessners generals in its academy for army leaders. In the eighties the regime had to face growing opposition, economic decline, factions in the Colorados as well as the democratisation of other Latin American countries.

After many so called reelections of Stroessner his presidency finally ended in 1989. Stroessner tried to force his former friend, Rodriguez, general and the chief of staff to accept the post of minister of defence or to retire. Why he did this is not exactly clear, but rumours say that different money laundering operations got in the way of each other. It also seems to have been related to power struggles within the Colorado party. Not everybody agreed with Stroessners plan to make his son his successor. On 3rd February 1989 Rodriguez seized power, forced Stroessner into exile in Brazil and appointed himself president of Paraguay.

On 1st May 1989 elections confirmed Rodriguez as president. After some discussions the opposition had decided to participate in the elections, even if it was clear, that they would be fraudulent. After the election Rodriguez promised presidential elections and his resignation for 1993. Negotiations with the opposition led to municipal elections in May 1991 and elections for a constitutional assembly in December 1991. In the municipal elections PLRA officially gained 33%. In the Constitutional Assembly the Colorados got 123 seats, the Liberals 57 and others 16. Both elections were fraudulent. Still, the opposition decided to continue the process and start drawing up a new constitution and a new electoral law. It was this constitution that was the base for the elections of 9th May 1993.

The Electoral Law

All Paraguayan citizens of 18 years and older with permanent residence in Paraguay have a right to vote. Apart from the usual exceptions, like people that have been declared incompetent by a court, pupils of the police academy and conscript soldier are not allowed to vote. To be allowed to vote, a citizen has to register himself in the Registro Cívico Permanente, the permanent civil register. To be able to inscribe in the register and to be able to go and vote, everybody needs an identity card issued by the police.

From the permanent civil register, lists of 200 voters each are produced. For every 200 voters there has to be a separate voting table. In this general elections, with 1.7 million voters, this meant a total of 8484 tables in 452 different locations. For each table there should three officials: a president and two vocales. The officials should be from at least two different parties. If no other party than the Colorados or PLRA finds or nominates an official the third official can be from one of those two parties as well. Also, every party can appoint one observer, a "veedor", for each table and regional observers, "Apoderados". The observers have the right to observe the voting and the counting. If there are problems or doubts in the procedure the observers can give their opinion to the officials at the table. However, the president decides. The observers also have the right to lodge complaints with the officials. If a complaint is filed, a copy has to be given to the observer, signed by all three officials of the table.

If a voter presents himself at the table, he first has to identify himself by presenting his identity card. The identity card is then compared with the list of voters on the table. If they match, the voter is issued his ballot sheets. Because of the many problems in Paraguay with the identity cards and the permanent register, a card can also be considered matching if the name was correct but there was a small difference in the number or the other way around. The law says a voter can only be refused if the name and number on the identity card and in the register are manifestly different.

The ballot sheets have to be signed on the back by all three officials of the table. Because of the high rate of illiteracy in Paraguay, the sheets were designed in such a way that they are also clear if one cannot read. They show the official colours of the different parties and if the elections are for a person, like president or governor, they also show a picture of the candidate.

The voter now fills in his ballot sheets in a closed cabin and returns to the table. Before putting the sheets in the box, each voter has to mark a finger of his right hand with indelible ink. This makes it possible to see if a person has voted and makes it impossible to go to another table with another identity card. The sheets for the different elections have to be put in the ballot box one by one. It is not allowed to put in a whole package. The ballot box has to be transparent, so the officials can see if one sheet is put in or a package and no filled in ballot sheets can be put in the box before the voting starts.

After the table closes, the officials and the observers of the table vote themselves. Then the counting starts. The box is opened and first all the ballot sheets without the complete set of three correct signatures are removed. Next, the sheets are sorted by ballot. Then they are counted and compared with the number of people who have voted. If there are less ballot sheets than people that have voted, this is marked in the official acts of the table, but the votes are valid. If there is more sheets than there have been voters, but not more than 10%, ballot sheets are removed and destroyed at random until the number matches. If the number of sheets exceeds the number of voters by more than 10%, the table is declared invalid and the votes are not counted.

Finally, if the table is counted, the officials make a list of number of votes for every party. All observers who ask for it, can get a copy of this list signed by the three officials of the tables. Then, all the ballot sheets, the results, any complaints that might have been files and the list of voters should be sealed in an envelope and be send to the "Junta Electoral Central", the central electoral council. The JEC counts again and makes the final official result.

General Elections

The general elections on 9th May consisted of 5 ballots:

President and Vice President of the Republic
45 Senators
80 Members of Parliament
Governors of 17 departments
Members of the Departmental councils
The senators were voted on a national list. The members of parliament were voted on 18 lists, one for the capital Asunción and one for each of the 17 departments. The elections for the Governors and the Departmental councils only took place in the 17 departments. That means that in Asunción voters only had three ballots and outside Asunción five.

For the senate 45 members were elected with 30 substitutes. For the House of Representatives 80 members were elected with 80 substitutes. The capital and each department could elect a number of members depending on their size. The capital could elect 13 members. The biggest department, Central with 382096 voters, could elect 17 members and the smallest one, Alto Paraguay with 5263 voters, 1 member.

Political Parties

Paraguay counts a total of 14 political parties and movements. Some of these are only active in one community or department. Of these parties, 9 were running candidates for the presidency. The two oldest parties in Paraguay are the Liberals and the Colorados. In this elections only one other party had importance, the Encuentro Nacional. Together these three parties got almost all the votes, leaving the other parties without a single member of parliament.

Colorados

The Asociación Nacional Republicana, popularly known as Partido Colorado and often referred to as "officialistas", is the party of former dictator Stroessner. It is the party of the traditional establishment such as the military and the civil servants. Since Rodriguez took over from Stroessner, the Colorados claim to be a democratic party. Their presidential candidate was Wasmosy, who calls himself a entrepreneur. He made a lot of money in an enterprise related to the large hydroelectric power plant. This apparently involved the abuse of public funds.

The unfair advantage of the Colorados already started well before the elections. Their control of the state resources such as buildings, cars, lorries, staff and parts of the media gave them endless opportunities for costless campaigning. The delegation saw municipal cars used for campaigning and the Colorado banners on several ministries could not be overseen.

The Colorados could penetrate schools, universities, community centres and even the Junta Electoral Central. The absolute limit of this was a car of the Junta Electoral Central driving around with Colorado flags while the JEC is supposed to be the impartial "judge" of the elections. A flagrant breach of article 1 of the electoral law, which states very clearly that all institutions of the state should be neutral in the electoral process. Also, several members of the delegation met civil servants or employees in the public sector who had been threatened with the loss of their job if they did not vote Colorado.

It was impossible for the delegation or normal public to visit any Colorado meeting, except the large manifestations. What we heard and saw gave us the idea, that the party's internal organisation functions very much as one imagines the party of a dictatorial regime to do. Thus it is no surprise, that there were complaints from within the party about manipulation of Wasmosys appointment as presidential candidate. Apart from being the party of the traditional establishment the Colorado party has like the liberals a traditional support in certain regions of the country. Needless to say, that those regions are favoured by the regime.

Encuentro Nacional

Encuentro Nacional is a party build around its leader Juan Caballero Vargas. Vargas is a multimillionaire who build his fortune in the times of Stroessner. His conglomerate alone controls 25% of Paraguayan export. Parts of the Fevreristas, the only Paraguayan party that could be called social democrats also joined the EN.

The EN is a new party and most of its leading figures have not been involved in the opposition or at least not since long. The EN had their main support in Asunción and in the area of Vargas' companies. The Encuentro Nacional gave us the impression as the party of the "yuppies" and entrepreneurs. Vargas also seemed to benefit from the wish to forget the past and the fear of revenge.

The main reason why the EN could become the third party is money. Money from Vargas himself and money from foreign investors and business acquaintances of Vargas. With practically unlimited amounts of money, anyone can run a good campaign. The comparison with Ross Perot, which was often made, seemed to be a very fitting one.

No other party had so luxurious campaign material as the Encuentra Nacional. The last 9 days before the elections, Encuentro included 4 to 8 page colour specials with all the major newspapers supported by television commercials longer than the news broadcasts. The costs of this alone, were higher than the entire campaign budget of the Liberals.

PLRA

The Partido Liberal Radical Auténtico is an impressive party in many ways. The name of the party fits their policies, which we experienced as much more defined, interesting and thoughtful than is sometimes claimed by western observers. One of the most striking features for Western Europeans was that from the day-to-day running of the party to the highest leadership there is involvement from people of different social background, different educational backgrounds, different ages, etc. This diversity was also manifested in the choice the party had made for its main candidates, who presented a wide range of personalities. Many of the candidates are well known for their struggle for human rights, free elections and free press. Just as many of them have been victims of the political oppression by the Colorados. In the same time the party had many young candidates and in the last parliament the only Guarani member came from PLRA.

Also the management of their campaign was most impressive and reflected the spirits of this party. The main campaign manager, had closed his medical praxis for several months and many others dedicated all their time to the campaign. Artists doing creative work and other countless volunteers were for example painting endless numbers of campaign T-shirts.

FFAA

Another main actor in the political arena in Paraguay are the Fuerzas Armadas, the armed forces. Especially the numerous public statements of General Oviedo were an attempt at influencing the electorate. The armed forces clearly wanted a Colorado victory. The threat of a coupe in case of a different election result was not outspoken but nevertheless very present and hinted clearly.

The armed forces also worked openly for the campaign of the Colorados. During a visit to the Military geographic institute, we witnessed the removal of military license plates from army vehicles and the dressing up of the vehicles with Colorado flags for a manifestation.

The day before the elections the borders with Argentina and Uruguay were closed by the armed forces. First, the army was supposedly looking for people who had tried to escape their conscript service, slowing access to the country by extensive checks. Later on that Saturday the borders were closed entirely and only handled normally again on the afternoon of election day.

The denial of entry to Paraguayan citizens into their own country is clearly a violation of the Paraguayan constitution and any human rights treaty. But more than that, it was a demonstration of power and a signal by the armed forces to the electorate. While during most of our stay not many uniformed soldiers were seen in the streets of Asunción this changed from the day before the elections on.

Junta Electoral

The Junta Electoral Central, the central electoral council, is the official institution responsible for the all the arrangements for the elections and the official count afterwards. The council is made up of nine members. Of those there are six Colorados, one PLRA, one Fevreristas and one Partido Liberal, a small party which used to work with the Colorados basically made up by a dozen people who were all candidates. Unnecessary to stress, that this composition had a big influence on the way the electoral process was organised.

The composition also lead to problems for the opposition during the official count. The count was expected to be finished in one or two days, but took three weeks. One of the reasons for the long count is easy to surmise. The one PLRA member of the council, Joaquin Casal, cannot control the counting process for three weeks for 24 hours a day.

Election Day

Before and on election day, numerous things went wrong. Some of these were not bad will but simply lack of knowledge of the law. Some members of the delegation met table officials, who were illiterate and no one had explained them the law well enough. The church, PLRA and also FNSt had undertaken great efforts to train people for the elections, but obviously they could not reach everybody. Also speaking up against Colorado officials is not easy for everyone everywhere in the country. In any case it was clear, that the government had no interest in well trained apoderados and officials from the opposition.

Other problems occurring on election day could only be judged as conscious attempts at fraud. It is actually not possible to prove fraud or the attempt to it in all the examples mentioned. Some incidents might have been caused and eased by lack of information and training. But many of the mentioned incidents happened in several areas and that as well as the general attitude of the Colorados makes it hard to believe that all were just accidents. In the same time one has to remember that any demonstration of power by the ruling party is likely to have more effects in a country, which has been ruled by a dictatorship for decades.

It started with the list of voters. Since the last elections the voters list has been cleared from thousands of names of dead people, invented people or double registration, but the lists still served as one of the main means for manipulation. All political parties had received the list of voters two weeks before the elections. Already on those lists for example some children could be found. On election day, there were suddenly differences between the lists on the tables and the lists the parties had gotten before. People appeared two or three times on the lists on the tables, or appeared on different tables. In other cases people shared an identity card number at one table and most likely were registered with the other number somewhere else. There were actually people going from table to table to vote. Others probably went from polling station to polling station. Before the election there were rumours about the buying up of identity cards and members of the delegation saw what looked very much like an attempt to sell one.

In the same time election tables were moved at very short notice. Hence the voter has to find out again where to vote and get there. The indelible ink was not always so very indelible. Another problem was that many officials at the tables refused to accept complaints.

Members of the delegation also saw and were told, that Colorado presidents of the voting table asked the other officials at the table to sign ballot sheets days in advance or to sign them before or during the count. In Chaco, in the north west of Paraguay a member of the delegation observed Colorados bringing Guarani Indians to the polling stations on trucks. In the polling station they were handed a red band and instructed to vote for this colour. Delegation members were also told that in one area voters were asked by the local Colorado office to bring ballot papers after they voted. In some polling stations Colorado propaganda was distributed and in others they were simply present all day. At one polling station a demonstration of power by the Colorados was experienced. In the afternoon trucks with plenty of people and Colorado flags drove along the streets shouting their victory. In one case a man refused to use the ink and ran away.

Finally, the telephone lines for the parallel count of SAKA, a non-governmental organisation, were cut on election day for several hours. While all other parallel counts and newspapers maintained the computer connection to the JEC the one to the parallel count of PLRA was disturbed several times. Also an independent communication network was damaged and the PLRA headquarter received bomb threats the night before the elections. Officially it is not known who was behind all of this. Additionally after the elections the PLRA, EN and the newspapers reported about problems regarding the transport of the vote, Colorado officials at the tables refusing to sign ballot papers, annulment of oppositional votes and the count in general.

Observers

International election observation was carried out by the Organisation of American States, Socialist International, a church organisation, the European Parliament, NDI, FNSt and IFLRY. Some of them visited Paraguay only for a very short period, while others had been there before or arrived early to prepare for their tasks. The observation of the elections was a difficult task. One should neither underestimate the importance of the observation nor overestimate its possibilities. Even though about 500 international observers crowded Paraguay on election day they could not be everywhere. In some cases the government and the Junta Electoral also knew long in advance where the observers would be on election day. This contributed of course to more democratic procedures in the places observed, but also left space for Colorado activities in other areas.

In the same time some observers had a very different concept of their duties than others and different interests. The old idea of stability above democracy played a role in this. Already three days before the elections the OAS delegation declared the elections to be free and democratic. On election day also many other international observers were quick to make positive judgments, while they later on had to correct them as for example Jimmy Carter. Most international observers criticised the closing of the borders, the moving of voting tables, general intimidation by the Colorados, the cutting of telephone lines and irregularities in the transport of the votes.

International Press

The reporting of the waste majority of the international press has to be called disappointing. Gathered in the four star Hotel Guarani, seldom leaving it, many of their reports were based on few sources of information. Many reports on the election day and the results were based on official government press releases and the very first statements of some of the international observers. Hence the whole international press declared Wasmosy the winner before a single vote was counted and most journalists left the country the day after the elections.

The results

According to the official results of the presidential elections Wasmosy won about 40% of the votes, Laino 32% and Vargas 22%. For the parliamentary election the result from the JEC first showed a majority of the opposition, which would have been more consistent with the results they claim in the presidential vote. Now the result gives 40 seats to ANR, 32 to PLRA and 8 to EN out of a total of 80 seats. In the senate ANR has 20, PLRA 17 and EN 8 representatives. 4 out of 17 departments were won by PLRA, while no candidate for governor from EN got elected. PLRA also won the important central department.

PLRA and EN forwarded a petition to the senate to declare the results in a number of tables invalid. Unfortunately it is still the old senate with the guaranteed two thirds Colorado majority which will deal with this request. They might admit to declaring the results of a few tables invalid, but never enough to change the official result.

Conclusions

In previous elections, for example, in parts of the country ballot sheets existed only for Colorado candidates. In this elections the Colorados were not any longer in the position to openly carry out large scale manipulation of the elections directly during the voting process even though it still occurred too often. This improvement, facilitated by the new electoral law and a changed climate, has to be valued. Controlling the transport of the votes as well as the local, regional and national counts remained a great problem. This became especially clear during the shifting around of the JEC regarding the results of the parliamentary elections. Just as problematic was the intimidation by the military and the Colorado party, their still continuing system of small and large scale corruption and the abuse of public resources and power. In short; the elections were a step forward on the way to democracy but far from being free, fair and democratic.

The chances for the future are the generally strengthened opposition and in its improved position in the national parliament and on departmental level. Concerning the international level one has to hope, that the new interest shown in Paraguay around the elections will be a continuing one and Paraguay never again becomes a forgotten country.

[kader]Paraguay

Paraguay is a landlocked country in the middle of South America. With its 406752 square kilometres and a population of about 4 Million it is one of the least densely populated countries in the world. Of its population 75% is under 35 years of age and 61.5% is under 25 years.

Of the population around 95% are Mestizos, about 2% indians (statistics vary very much) and 3% whites. Guarani and Spanish are both offical languages. Although many are bilingual the majority of the population outside the larger towns is speaking a mixture of Spanish and Gurani or Guarani.

The state church in Paraguay is the Catholic church and more than 90% of the population is catholic. There is also a small Protestant community of about 2% of the population. Also about 13000 Mennonites, mainly immigrants from Germany and the Netherlands, live in Paraguay.

Paraguay has a Gross National Product of 4796 million USD, or 1110 USD per capita. About 25% of this is produced by agriculture and about 22% by industry. Of the labour force about 47% is working in agriculture and 15% in industry. Paraguay has a huge "grey" economy of smuggling and contraband. The offical export of the the country is mainly made up by three products: cotton (35%), Soya (28%) and beef (14%). Paraguay has virtually no mineral resources.[/kader]

This article was written by Imke Roebken, IFLRY president, and Jan Weijers, IFLRY executive director. This article reflects their personal opinions.