The president of the National Congress, Basilio “Bachi” Núñez, announced he will promote a reform of the Paraguayan electoral system to expand voting options within party lists. The proposal aims to modify the current open closed list system, in effect since Law 6318/2019, to allow each voter to cast up to two preferential votes within the same list, instead of the single vote currently allowed.
“If we already have an open closed list that gives the electorate an option, why not give more options? Two or even three, this already exists in other countries,” the legislator declared in an interview. According to him, the system would allow citizens, in addition to voting for a political party, to favor more than one candidate from the same slate, although he clarified that voting across lists from different parties would not be considered.
Núñez said the bill will be presented within 10 to 15 days and will first be debated in the Governing Board of the National Republican Association (ANR), the Colorado Party. “We are working because it is real,” the Senate president stated, recalling that the simple open list system originally arose in the Chamber of Deputies and that now they will seek to advance a new modification of electoral regulations.
The initiative reopens the debate on the Paraguayan electoral system, especially amid questions related to the functioning of preferential voting and the use of voting machines in internal and general processes.