1993 Paraguayan general election

General elections were held in Paraguay on 9 May 1993.[1] In the first free election in the country's 182-year history,[2] as well as the first with no military candidates since 1928,[3] Juan Carlos Wasmosy of the Colorado Party won the presidential election with 41.8 percent of the vote.

1993 Paraguayan general election

9 May 1993
Turnout	69.0% (Presidential) 67.6% (Chamber of Deputies) 69.4% (Senate)
Presidential election
Candidate Juan Carlos Wasmosy Domingo Laíno Guillermo Caballero Vargas Party Colorado PLRA PEN Popular vote 449,505 357,164 262,407 Percentage 41.78% 33.20% 24.39%
President before election Andrés Rodríguez Colorado President-elect Juan Carlos Wasmosy Colorado
Parliamentary election
80 seats in the Chamber of Deputies 45 seats in the Senate
Party Leader % Seats ± Chamber of Deputies (41 seats for a majority) Colorado Juan Carlos Wasmosy 43.4 38 -10 PLRA Domingo Laíno 36.8 33 +12 PEN Guillermo Caballero Vargas 17.7 9 New Senate (23 seats needed for a majority) Colorado 44.0 20 0 PLRA 36.2 17 New PEN 17.9 8 New This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.

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The election was not entirely peaceful. For example, on Election Day, an opposition television channel was raked by gunfire, and government officials cut the phone lines of opposition parties and independent election monitors. However, the phone lines were restored after intervention from Jimmy Carter.[4] Despite confirmed cases of fraud, independent analysts concluded that the fraudulent activity had no effect on the outcome, and that Wasmosy's eight-point margin of victory was large enough to offset any illicit activity. Carter's team of international observers noted that opposition candidates tallied almost 60 percent of the vote between them.[2]

The Colorado Party remained the largest party in the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, albeit with only a plurality. The opposition Authentic Radical Liberal Party and National Encounter Party held a majority of the seats in both chambers, later supplemented by the Colorado Reconciliation Movement which broke away from the Colorado Party.[5] Voter turnout was 69.0% in the presidential election, 67.6% in the Chamber elections and 69.4% in the Senate elections.[6]

Wasmosy took office on 15 August, becoming the first civilian to hold the post in 39 years.