Fernando Lugo of the Patriotic Alliance for Change waves to crowds in Asuncion after winning the Paraguayan presidential elect

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'Bishop of the poor' takes power in Paraguay

A former bishop has ended Paraguay's 61 years of one-party rule, beating the reigning party's candidate to win the country's presidential election

Lugo, a mild-mannered leftist who quit the clergy three years ago, saying he felt powerless to help Paraguay's poor, was announced as the winner of the elections after some uncertainty

Lugo had been given 40 to 43% of the vote in four separate exit polls earlier in the evening. The ruling Colorado party's candidate, Blanca Ovelar, the first woman to run for president in Paraguay, was on 36 to 38%

retired army general Lino Oviedo, freed last year after the supreme court overturned a sentence for plotting a coup, was in third place.

The Colorado party has stayed in power by means of democracy and dictatorship

nicknamed the "bishop of the poor"

"a different country"