Early general elections were held in Paraguay on 1 May 1989 to elect the president and Chamber of Deputies.[1] They were the first held since longtime president Alfredo Stroessner was toppled in a military coup on 3 February, seven months after being sworn in for an eighth term. For the first time in several years, the opposition was allowed to contest the elections more or less unmolested; the Communists were the only party that was banned from taking part.[2][3]
Andrés Rodríguez, who had led the coup and had been serving as provisional president since then, was elected president in his own right[3][2] running on the Colorado Party ticket. The Colorado Party also won 48 of the 72 seats in the Chamber of Deputies. Voter turnout was 52%.
The legislative elections were called after Rodríguez dissolved the previous Congress in February, citing a provision of the constitution that allowed the president to do so if they felt Congress had acted in a manner that distorted the separation of powers. Rodríguez used the new elections as a tool to purge pro-Stroessner "militants" from the Colorado caucus. The presidential elections were held because the constitution required new elections if a president died, resigned, or was permanently disabled less than two years into their term. That same provision stipulated that the winner would not serve a full five-year term, but only the remainder of the previous president's term.[3] In this case, Rodríguez won the right to serve the remainder of Stroessner's term, which was due to end in 1993.
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