Cartes re-election bid may go awry in Paraguay

Subject

Constitutional reform and presidential re-election.

Significance

President Horacio Cartes has abandoned plans for a constitutional amendment to enable him to stand for re-election in 2018, following mounting opposition to the move in Congress. However, the Cartes government is instead seeking to push through a hurried and wide-ranging constitutional reform that would include provision for a second presidential term.

Impacts

• Cartes's Colorado Party appears increasingly dominated by currents influenced by its more authoritarian past.
• A reform allowing re-election could in fact produce a return of a leftist president rather than a second term for Cartes.
• As such, Cartes may make common cause with the left, as the main opposition party remains adamantly against re-election.