PARAGUAY:AFTER A bitter campaign marked by fraud and character assassination Paraguay will elect a new president tomorrow with polls showing a former Catholic bishop poised to become the first opposition leader to win power peacefully since Paraguay's independence from Spain in 1811.
Fernando Lugo, who resigned from holy orders in 2006 and is making his electoral debut, closed his campaign on Thursday night with a massive rally in the capital Asunción at which he told voters: "Those who have stolen from the people have three days left."
Mr Lugo has built an alliance of 20 parties ranging from traditional conservatives to the far left, all united in their desire to finally remove from power the Colorado party which after 62 years in office is world's the longest-serving ruling party.
Under the Colorados corruption from the presidency down through every level of government is rampant. As a result Paraguay is one of South America's poorest nations, despite booming exports in soy, cotton and beef.
With their grip on power threatened, the Colorados have launched an all-out smear campaign against Mr Lugo. They have tried to implicate him in the kidnapping and murder of the daughter of a former president in 2004; insinuated his supporters plotted to poison President Nicanor Duarte Frutos and this week claimed he was planning a wave of violence during Sunday's vote. Unsigned posters in Asunción have even labelled him "La Bestia 666".
Though she can rely on the support of the public sector, where loyalty to the Colorados is a prerequisite for getting a job, the campaign of the Colorado candidate has been hampered by divisions within the party. Former education secretary Blanca Ovelar was widely believed to have lost the party's internal primary in December but counting was suspended and she was declared winner five weeks later to the anger of many Colorado activists, who see her as the puppet of the deeply unpopular President Nicanor.
But even should he win tomorrow, Mr Lugo's campaign has raised the possibility of fraud, expressing grave concerns about the country's electoral court, which supervises voting. Two of the court's three members openly carry out the bidding of the Colorado leadership. A printing firm owned by the family of the court's judge Juan Manuel Morales won over $1 million in contracts with the education ministry when it was run by Ms Ovelar.
When confronted with the conflict of interests Mr Morales responded: "The firm is a family firm run by my son where my daughter and wife also work. I have absolutely nothing to do with it."
The Lugo campaign has announced that it will reject all early tallies by the court and await a full count. Mr Lugo's closest aides say they need to win by a clear majority or else the Colorados will try and steal the result. Newspapers have this week carried reports of padding of electoral rolls in rural constituencies, a traditional ploy by the Colorados.
The Colorado-controlled courts are also behind the candidacy of the controversial former Colorado general Lino Oviedo, who some polls put in second place ahead of Ms Ovelar. He has past links to drug traffickers and was in jail for an attempted coup in 1996 until he was suddenly released last year and freed to run for the presidency by the country's supreme court.
Gen Oviedo's style is that of an old-fashioned South American strongman, which still exerts a strong appeal in a country where many are nostalgic for the dictatorship of Alfredo Stroessner.