(Angus Reid Global Monitor) – The popularity of Paraguayan president Fernando Lugo fell sharply in 2009, according to a poll by GEO published in Última Hora. Only 16.7 per cent of respondents say Lugo has done a good or very good job at the presidency, down 22.6 points since November 2008.
(Angus Reid Global Monitor) – The popularity of Paraguayan president Fernando Lugo fell sharply in 2009, according to a poll by GEO published in Última Hora. Only 16.7 per cent of respondents say Lugo has done a good or very good job at the presidency, down 22.6 points since November 2008.
In April 2008, Paraguayans voted in presidential and legislative elections. Lugo, a former Catholic bishop representing the left-leaning Patriotic Alliance for Change (APC), won the ballot with 42.3 per cent of the vote. Presidential candidates in Paraguay are not compelled to garner more than 50 per cent of the vote in order to win the election.
Lugo’s victory ended six decades of one-party rule in Paraguay. The National Republican Association – Red Party (ANR) had been in power since 1947, even during the dictatorship of Alfredo Stroessner. Lugo—who is known in Paraguay as "the Bishop of the Poor"—took office in August 2008.
In April, Lugo’s personal life was the object of scrutiny, as he acknowledged that he fathered a child in 2006 while he was still a Roman Catholic bishop. Some members of the opposition called on the president to resign, but he declined to do so.
On Oct. 15, an unidentified group abducted wealthy Paraguayan rancher Fidel Zavala. After the government sent special troops to find the kidnappers, it became known that two of the group’s leaders were a former student of Lugo and a former altar boy.
Days later, ANR senator Juan Carlos Galaverna declared: "Lugo continues to be deeply tied to the kidnappers." Paraguayan interior minister Rafael Filizzola defended the president, saying, "They’re trying to stigmatize the Paraguayan left because of this, but the left has always been non-violent. The violence came from Stroessner, a right-wing dictatorship that tortured and killed. The violence never came from the left, or from the church."
Polling Data
How would you rate the performance of Fernando Lugo as president?
|
|
Dec. 2009
|
Nov. 2008
|
|
Very Good / Good
|
16.7%
|
39.3%
|
|
Average
|
57.8%
|
46.2%
|
|
Bad / Very Bad
|
20.0%
|
13.7%
|
|
Not sure
|
5.5%
|
1.8%
|
Source: GEO / Última Hora
Methodology: Telephone interviews to 1,200 Paraguayan adults, conducted from Nov. 22 to Dec. 4, 2008. Margin of error is 2.7 per cent.
