Soledad Núñez led the ruling Colorado Party’s candidate in Asunción with nearly all votes counted, while opposition contender Dani Mujica won decisively in the country’s second-largest city.
Paraguay’s ruling Colorado Party lost the mayoral race in the capital, Asunción, with 99.92 percent of votes counted. Opposition coalition candidate Soledad Núñez had 47.78 percent, against 45.98 percent for Colorado candidate Camilo Pérez, Reuters reported.
Pérez told reporters he would wait for an official review of the results on Monday. The Colorado Party had controlled the mayor’s office since 2019. Núñez, a 2023 vice-presidential candidate, will take over a municipality burdened by millions of dollars in debt, missed interest payments, stalled public works and infrastructure problems.
In Ciudad del Este, the country’s second-largest city and a commercial hub near the borders with Argentina and Brazil, opposition candidate Dani Mujica won 72.83 percent. The Colorado candidate received 23.8 percent, with all votes counted.
The municipal contests were widely viewed as a midterm test for the right-wing government ahead of the 2028 general election. Analysts see 37-year-old Miguel Prieto, leader of the Yo Creo movement, as a rising political figure expected to seek the presidency in 2028.