A former Catholic bishop has won Paraguay's presidential election, ending 61 years of one-party rule.
Fernando Lugo, who left the clergy three years ago saying he felt powerless to help Paraguay's poor, ousted the ruling Colorado Party in yesterday's election with promises to tackle inequality and stamp out corruption.
Presidential candidate and former bishop Fernando Lugo, of the Patriotic Alliance for Change party, celebrates his election win
"We ask you never to abandon us. We'll make democracy together!" Mr Lugo (56) told supporters of his Patriotic Alliance for Change party as firecrackers resounded around Asuncion last night.
"Today we wish to renew our commitment to the Paraguayan people ... to the poorest," he added. "We will give our best to ensure our people are respected and known from here on in for their honesty, not for their corruption."
Mr 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.
But he is seen as a likely ally of moderate leftist presidents in the region, which has steadily turned away from the right-wing dictatorships, corrupt governments and Marxist rebellions that were so prevalent in the late 20th century.
Mr Lugo will take office on August 15th 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. Nearly four in every 10 Paraguayans are poor.
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 per cent of the vote and a lead of 10 percentage points, was a good start. Voter turnout was high, at around 65 per cent.
The Colorado Party has dominated Paraguayan politics since it took power in 1947, and it backed General Alfredo Stroessner's brutal 35-year dictatorship until helping to oust him in 1989.