Former Paraguayan Catholic bishop and presidential candidate, Fernando Lugo (l), and his running mate, Federico Franco, raise hands as they celebrate in Asuncion on April 20.

Former Roman Catholic bishop Fernando Lugo won a historic victory in Paraguay’s presidential election Sunday, ending more than six decades of one-party rule with a mandate to help the nation’s poor and indigenous.
His rival, Blanca Ovelar, conceded defeat after a closely fought race to lead this poor, agrarian nation where Ovelar’s Colorado Party is the only ruling party most people have ever known, according to AP.
News of the win by Lugo, dubbed the “bishop of the poor,“ set off massive parties in cities across Paraguay with horn-honking caravans of cars blaring music. Others stamped on torn-down banners of the Colorado Party, which many Paraguayans blame for decades of corruption by political elites.
The triumph by Lugo’s eclectic opposition alliance also marked the latest in a series of election wins by leftist, or center-left, leaders in South America.
“Today you have spoken at the polls,“ Lugo told tens of thousands of supporters in downtown Asuncion, as fireworks burst under a full moon. “You have decided what has to be done in Paraguay. You have decided to be a free Paraguay. Thank you, thank you, all of you.
Journalism student Andrea Ramirez, 19, waved a Paraguayan flag at the rally. “I voted for the first time and am very happy. The shameless and cynical ones have lost.
With 12,983 of some 14,000 balloting stations counted, officials said Lugo had 41 percent of the vote, Ovelar had 31 percent and former army chief Lino Oviedo had 22 percent. Election officials said that tally accounts for nearly 1.5 million votes--out of a 2.8 million electorate.
“The outcome is irreversible,“ Ovelar, 50, declared on national television five hours after polls closed after largely peaceful voting. Election officials said Sunday’s voting had the highest turnout--about 66 percent--of any presidential election since the end of the 35-year dictatorship of late Gen. Alfredo Stroessner.
Lugo’s triumph shattered the 61-year grip on national power by the Colorado Party, which had endured through dictatorship and democracy to become the region’s longest-ruling party.
In Paraguay’s long-volatile politics, Lugo still awaited final official returns confirming his landmark triumph, which would make him the first former Catholic bishop elected as a head-of-state.
Supporters of Lugo set off booming volleys of fireworks in the Paraguayan capital, the cacophony swelling for hours after the exit polls project a stronger-than-expected victory for Lugo.
The Colorado Party, thanks to an extensive party apparatus and hundreds of thousands of loyal government civil servants, long led this agrarian South American nation--in power even longer than Cuba’s Communist Party.
Eight months ago, Lugo welded leftist unions, Indians and poor farmers into a coalition with Paraguay’s main opposition party: the conservative Authentic Radical Party.
Lugo then launched a charismatic campaign in which he blamed Paraguay’s deep-seated economic woes on decades of corruption by an elite that ruled at the expense of the poor in a country of subsistence farmers.
A bishop since 1994, he resigned the post in December 2006 to sidestep Paraguay’s constitutional ban on clergy seeking office. Lugo says he was influenced by the liberation theology frowned upon by the Vatican. But he declares he is neither on the “left“ nor the “right,“ but leads an independent, pluralistic coalition.
Lugo has distanced himself from the region’s more radical leaders, such as Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, despite efforts by his opponents to link them.

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak said on Monday that history should not be an obstacle to improved ties with Japan, stressing better bilateral relations would be a plus for both countries and the region.
According to Reuters, Lee and Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda agreed at a summit in Tokyo to open working-level talks aimed at restarting stalled negotiations on a free trade deal, and to cooperate closely in efforts to end North Korea’s nuclear arms program.
Lee is visiting Tokyo after a trip to the United States, in a resumption of “shuttle“ diplomacy that had been suspended under his predecessor, who often complained that Japan had not shown proper contrition for its 1910-1945 rule of the Korean peninsula.
Asked whether the two countries could develop better ties in the future given sometimes bitter feuds over history, Lee, a former business executive who was born in Osaka, western Japan, smiled and said he would rather that question not to be asked.

Zimbabwe announced a delay in the partial recount of its disputed March 29 election on Sunday, extending a political deadlock in which the opposition says 10 of its members have been killed and hundreds arrested.
According to Reuters, the delay increased opposition concern about possible vote-rigging by veteran President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party.
The recount could overturn the results of the parliamentary election, which showed ZANU-PF losing its majority to the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) for the first time.
Results of the parallel presidential election have not been released, but MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai says he has won.
“I can confirm that 10 of our members have died, four of them in the last few days, due to political violence perpetrated by ruling party supporters in the aftermath of the elections,“ MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said.

Taiwan’s incoming Premier Liu Chao-shiuan has unveiled the bulk of his Cabinet line-up, with it mostly composed of experienced members of the former Kuomintang government, AP said.
“Part of the Cabinet has been decided, so we make public the name list today,“ Liu said.
Paul Chiu, a former finance minister and now the chairman of EnTie Commercial Bank, was named the upcoming vice premier.
Sixteen other members, among them the economic affairs minister, foreign affairs minister, justice minister and transportation minister, were included in the name list. But Liu did not unveil the incoming defense minister and chief of Mainland Affairs Council, the island’s top China policy decision-making body.
Ma Ying-jeou of the nationalist party Kuomintang trounced Frank Hsieh of the ruling pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party in a landslide March 22 presidential vote.

Ecuador could suspend some military accords with the United States to block what it calls US ideological influence in its armed forces, AP cited Defense Minister Javier Ponce as saying Sunday.
Ponce told the news program UNO that current agreements with the US were signed under previous administrations “in the spirit of colonialism“ and are under review. He did not give details or say which agreements could be suspended.
“The specter of (US) training, financial support and technical support inevitably has permeated the structure and behavior“ of Ecuador’s security forces, creating “a national security problem,“ Ponce said.
But he denied any attempt to “demonize“ relations with Washington.
President Rafael Correa named Ponce defense minister earlier this month as part of a top-level military and police leadership shake-up. Angered that his intelligence services gave Colombia information on an Ecuadorean with alleged ties to leftist rebels but did not inform him, Correa even accused them of being infiltrated by the CIA.