Paraguayan leader's backers seek re-election reform

The campaign has provoked fierce debate both within Lugo's ruling coalition and among opposition lawmakers in a nation where memories of a brutal 35-year dictatorship are fresh in many voters' minds.

Former dictator General Alfredo Stroessner, who ruled until 1989, changed Paraguay's Magna Carta to allow him to stand for re-election indefinitely.

Re-election has been banned in Paraguay since 1992 when Stroessner's constitution was overhauled.

Some critics of the proposal to change the constitution say it aims to take the country down the path followed by other regional presidents including Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Ecuador's Rafael Correa.

But the roughly 90,000 Lugo supporters who signed the petition presented to Congress say they only want to give his leftist policy agenda more time to yield results.

"We want this process of change ... to continue and allow President Lugo to be a candidate again in 2013," ruling party senator Carlos Filizzola said as he handed over the petition at the Congress in Asuncion.

Several thousands people gathered outside, some carrying banners reading "Yes to re-election."

Lugo was elected as president of the impoverished, soy- and beef-exporting country in 2008 on pledges to champion the needs of the poor, ending six decades of rule by the conservative Colorado Party.

Stiff opposition in Congress has stymied some of his key policy reforms, such as the granting of concessions for road and airport construction and a judicial shake-up, and his presidency has also been clouded by a cancer scare and several paternity scandals.

Lugo himself has denied he wants to run for another five-year term, but the drive to pave the way for his re-election has divided the leftist wing of his ruling coalition and drawn the rejection of conservatives.

"It's a dangerous process that has started to follow projects like that of Hugo Chavez," said Vice President Federico Franco, who has a tense relationship with Lugo.

Political analysts say the swift advance of the reform drive and Lugo's recent sacking of two high-profile ministers who rejected it suggest he is interested in a second term.

In order to prosper, the constitutional amendment needs the support of two-thirds of the opposition-controlled Congress.

While the main parties have not yet formalized their positions on the proposal, many prominent figures have expressed their opposition.

Recent opinion polls have shown more than 65 percent of voters are opposed to Lugo's re-election although his approval ratings currently run at about 50 percent.

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