Weekly Report - 8 July 2003

The election of the new president of Paraguay's lower chamber of congress sparked a major row which led to the four opposition parties walking out in protest. The reason: a decision by the outgoing president of the lower chamber, Oscar González Daher, to overrule the swearing in of Eduardo Vera Bejarano of the opposition Partido Liberal Radical Auténtico (PLRA) as his replacement. González Daher supported the decision by an electoral judge of the appeal court to grant an injunction on Vera requested by Carlos Zena, also a Liberal. Zena had asked for the resolution of alleged irregularities in Vera's triumph in party primary elections for the PLRA in the central department of San Pedro, even though the top electoral court had already cleared Vera. The president of the supreme court, Bonifacio Rí­os, also cleared Vera of the charges and sent a note to congress saying he should be sworn in as the new president. Upon hearing the decision, Vera threw his chair at González Daher and stormed out of the building. He was accompanied by all the PLRA legislators, except Zena and Osvaldo Ferrás, and all the legislators from the other opposition parties, Paí­s Solidario, Movimiento Patria Querida and Unión Nacional de Ciudadanos Eticos. The session continued and the 42 legislators left in the lower chamber (half plus two) elected the candidate of the ruling Partido Colorado, Benjamí­n Maciel Pasotti as the new president of the chamber.

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