Paraguay is set to hold elections on Sunday, with the ruling conservative Colorado Party facing its toughest electoral challenge in over a decade. The distant favorites
are the party's candidate Santiago Pena, an economist, and veteran opposition lawyer Efrain Alegre.
The Colorado Party has dominated Paraguayan politics since the 1950s and has ruled for all but five of the last 75 years. However, allegations of corruption and a slowing economy have eroded its popularity.
The election has been dominated by the economy, corruption allegations, and Paraguay's diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Paraguay is one of only 13 nations to maintain formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, but Alegre has criticized these ties, which have made it difficult to sell soy and beef to China, while Pena has pledged to maintain them. The first results are expected on Sunday evening, and nearly five million people are registered to vote in the presidential race, as well as for Congress and governors. Photo by Felipe Antonio, Wikimedia commons.