Who is Santiago Peña the elected president of Paraguay?

( Spanish) — Santiago Peña, candidate of the ruling Colorado Party, is the president-elect of Paraguay, reported Jorge Bogarín González, president of the Superior Court of Electoral Justice.

Peña’s vice-presidential ticket is Pedro Alliana, and both defeated at the polls the pairing made up of Efraín Alegre and Sole Núñez, from the opposition bloc National Concertation for a New Paraguay.

The preliminary results on Sunday night indicated that, with 98.90% of the polling stations counted, Peña had 1,227,373 votes, equivalent to 42.75% of the total.

President Mario Abdo Benítez congratulated the elected candidate with a message posted on his Twitter account, and assured that he will work “to start an orderly and transparent transition.”

Congratulations to the Paraguayan people for their great participation in this election day and to the president-elect @SantiPenap. We will work to initiate an orderly and transparent transition that strengthens our institutions and the country’s democracy.

– Marito Abdo (@MaritoAbdo) April 30, 2023

Santiago Peña is an economist and according to his profile published in official Web, has a Master’s in Public Administration from Columbia University. He held the position of Minister of Finance (2015 to 2017) during the government of Horacio Cartes.

“Employment, investment in human capital, health, education. The next few years may be the best years for Paraguay. But we have to put all our knowledge, experience and determination into practice,” Peña told .

previously reported that the United States sanctioned Cartes (and the country’s current vice president) in January for alleged acts of corruption “that undermine democratic institutions,” according to the Treasury Department. This is an accusation that Peña has denied.

With information from ‘s Sanie López Garelli.