Brazil & Southern Cone - November 2010 (ISSN 1741-4431)

On 17 October the Partido Liberal Radical Auténtico (PLRA) and Partido Patria Querida (PPQ) announced that the PPQ's Miguel 'Michel' Carrisoza had won a popular consultation process, and thus become the ruling coalition's consensus mayoral candidate for the November 7 Asunción mayoral elections.
 
The PPQ had initially failed to undersign an agreement with the PLRA and Frente Guasú designed to determine a consensus candidate.   The PLRA and Frente Guasú decided to go ahead with the process where Franklin Boccia, from the PLRA, emerged as a winner. Immediately after that result, Boccia offered Carrisoza the opportunity to hold another popular consultation process in order to determine a single mayoral candidate in an attempt to present a unified front against the opposition Asociación Nacional Republicana -Partido Colorado (ANR-PC).  
 
Carrisoza's victory is surprising due to the fact that the PLRA, one of the country's most traditional parties, has a much broader party base than the PPQ. However Carrisoza, currently a senator, is popular in Asunción . Carrisoza is now poised to run against the ANR-PC candidate, Armando Samaniego in the upcoming elections.
 
Samaniego and the ANR-PC have been highly critical of the PPQ-PLRA-Frente Guasú attempt to consolidate an alliance through consultation processes. On 17 October, while on campaign around Asunción , Samaniego discredited the latest consultation commenting that “... people are not interested in these kinds of alliances...they are not useful when it comes to governing, or providing real solutions to people's problems".            
 
The consultation process carried out on 17 October polled 20,000 people in Asunción 's 65 different barrios (neighbourhoods). Carrisoza received 54% of the vote whereas Boccia obtained 46%. Asked about how he felt about ultimately losing the election after previously winning the PLRA primaries and the PLRA-Frente Guasú run-off, Boccia   stated that “I don't feel defeated, I feel that democracy allowed me to become a grain of sand in this example of unity... here I am fulfilling a gentleman's promise, we came to bring him [Carrisoza] our support".

Oviedo
On 26 October, Lino Oviedo, the leader of the Unión Nacional de Ciudadanos Eticos (UNACE), announced his intention to run in the 2013 presidential elections. While very premature, Oviedo's announcement is controversial. His UNACE has maintained a steady level of political support and is now attempting to expand its political influence. Announcing his bid, Oviedo took the time to praise the former dictator Alfredo Stroessner (1954-1989), stating that Stroessner's early government was “excellent". Addressing his audience of predominantly German descendants living in the 'Colonias Unidas' area of the country, Oviedo concluded that this would be the last time he would present himself as presidential candidate, in order “to make Paraguay a second Germany".