Weekly Report - 09 November 2017 (WR-17-44)

Everything is now set for Paraguay’s ruling Asociación Nacional Republicana-Partido Colorado (ANR-PC) to hold its primary elections ahead of the April 2018 general election. The ANR-PC’s electoral tribunal (TEP) has approved the candidacies of the party members eligible to take part in the primaries, including that of Santiago Peña, the presidential pre-candidate backed by President Horacio Cartes and his supporters. But Peña will now have to convince the dissident ANR-PC party factions that do not support Cartes and that tried to stop his candidacy, that he represents the party’s best chance of retaining the presidency.