Backgrounder: General elections in Paraguay

ASUNCION, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Paraguay will hold on Sunday its seventh general elections since the end of the dictatorship of Alfredo Stroessner in February 1989.

This election will bring an end to the five-year term of President Horacio Cartes from the conservative Colorado Party.

Paraguay, about 406,725 square kilometers in size, is the fourth least-populated country in South America, with a population of 6.95 million in 2017.

About 4,241,507 voters have been approved to cast ballots in the elections, including 2,163,150 men and 2,078,357 women. A further 38,170 overseas voters from Argentina, Brazil, the United States and Spain will also take part in the elections.

Voters will select a new president, a vice-president, 45 senators, 80 deputies and 17 governors. Seventeen departmental congresses and Paraguay's 18 envoys to the Mercosur Parliament will also be elected.

There are 10 candidates competing for the presidency. The leading two are Mario Abdo Benitez from the ruling party and Pedro Efrain Alegre from the Ganar Alliance.

The president-elect, whose tenure is five years, will assume office on Aug. 15. Enditem