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Paraguayans went to the polls on Sunday to elect a new president, with a former Roman Catholic bishop seeking to unseat the Colorado Party after more than 60 years of one-party rule.
Most polls show ex-bishop Fernando Lugo edging out the ruling party's Blanca Ovelar, who is the first woman to run for president, and retired army general Lino Oviedo. But analysts say the race is too close to call. Dozens of international observers are watching for signs of electoral fraud in the poor South American country known for widespread corruption and contraband.
The candidate who gets the most votes wins the presidency, with no second round of balloting. Lugo was one of the first Paraguayans to cast his vote just after 7 am (1100 GMT), walking from his home to a nearby voting station amid throngs of reporters.
"There will be great civic participation today and that motivates us. This will be a day that goes down in our country's history," the front-runner said.
Paraguay's military and about 10,000 police officers are handling security at the roughly 1,000 schools being used as polling stations throughout the country. Voters are marking their votes on paper ballots.
Lugo is heading a center-left coalition that includes farm groups, unions and the traditional Liberal Party. He has steered clear of South America's more radical leftist leaders, such as Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Evo Morales in Bolivia.
The Colorado Party has dominated Paraguayan politics since 1947, backing General Alfredo Stroessner's 35-year dictatorship until helping to oust him in 1989.
The party was weakened by a bitterly divisive primary race, in which accusations of fraud marred Ovelar's victory. A former education minister with little experience in party politics, she has struggled to rally the party around her.
Oviedo jumped in the race for the rightist UNACE party after the Supreme Court overturned his 10-year prison sentence for plotting a coup in the mid-1990s. He is mostly backed by poor people who long for the return of a strongman leader.
Ovelar and her political mentor, outgoing President Nicanor Duarte Frutos, have rejected the possibility of electoral fraud. "I urge Paraguayans to demonstrate our civic conduct, our peaceful attitude and respect for the law," Ovelar told a televised news conference early on Sunday. "We believe the people will vote without any problems."
Paraguay has about 2.8 million registered voters out of a total population of 5.6 million. They will elect members of Congress and provincial governors as well. Political analysts expect no party to win a majority in Congress, which will force the new government to make alliances no matter who is in charge.
A landlocked country dwarfed by wealthier neighbours Argentina and Brazil, Paraguay relies economically on agricultural and hydroelectric power exports.

Copyright Reuters, 2008

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