Paraguay’s municipal elections on Sunday, 4 October 2026, will select 263 mayors and municipal councils, but they won’t change the national government. No presidential or congressional seat is at stake. More than five million registered voters can choose local officeholders, while the national apparatus remains beyond their reach.
A local ballot, a national limit
The Tribunal Superior de Justicia Electoral (TSJE) lists 5,043,154 registered voters across 263 districts. Polls open from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Paraguay time, and anyone already inside a polling place when it closes can still vote. The rules determine how people cast ballots; they don’t enlarge the decisions those ballots can make.
The election is being watched as a test for President Santiago Peña and his Colorado Party before the 2028 presidential vote. The Colorados have governed Paraguay through most of its modern history. In the 2021 municipal elections, they won 163 mayoralties, while the Liberal Party (PLRA) took 62.
The Colorado Party, formally the National Republican Association (ANR), is described as conservative and was founded in 1887. It has governed almost without interruption since 1947, including under the Stroessner dictatorship from 1954 to 1989, and held power only from 2008 to 2013. The main opposition, the Authentic Radical Liberal Party (PLRA), is described as centrist and was founded in 1978 by opponents of Stroessner. Smaller parties such as Patria Querida often form local alliances with the Liberals.
Asunción’s contest, filtered through party machinery
Asunción is the biggest prize. Colorado candidate Camilo Pérez faces Soledad Núñez, a civil engineer and former housing minister who isn’t a career party politician. She is running on the Patria Querida ticket, with backing from about 15 opposition parties and movements, including the Liberals. The account describes party alliances, but reports no mutual-aid or self-organized community response to the election.
Two September polls put Pérez ahead, although the outlets that published them lean toward the ruling party. Ati Snead’s poll, conducted 11–16 September, gave Pérez about 52.6% to Núñez’s 34.3%. Grau & Asociados’ poll, conducted 16–17 September, put Pérez at 50.8% and Núñez at 27.0%. Those figures are estimates, not votes, and the coverage says readers should treat the gaps carefully.
Ciudad del Este is a major trading city on the Brazilian border. Daniel Mujica of the Yo Creo movement is running against Colorado candidate Rigoberto Chamorro. Yo Creo, a local reform party, was founded by Miguel Prieto. Mujica won a November 2025 by-election by 40 points after Prieto’s removal from office in August 2025. Prieto predicted a historic Colorado defeat. No recent public poll was available for the city.
Counting the vote, measuring the limits
In Encarnación, deputy Sebastián “Cheba” Remesowski is the Colorado candidate; he won his primary with 76%. His main rival is Liberal deputy Carlos Pereira, backed by Alianza Encarnación en Marcha, which brings together the Liberals, Patria Querida and smaller parties. In San Lorenzo, Felipe Salomón, Colorado mayor in 2021–2026, is seeking to return against Luz Bella González, the Liberal chosen as the opposition’s consensus candidate. No recent public polls were available for either city.
The TSJE expected its preliminary count, known as TREP, to begin around 5:30 p.m. local time, with results from all districts due by 8 p.m. at the latest. The first figures and their exact timing depend on how quickly results arrive. TREP is preliminary and non-binding; electoral tribunals in each circuit will conduct the official count and proclaim the winners after Sunday. Publishing exit polls and survey data isn’t allowed until one hour after polls close.
Local results don’t translate directly into national votes. Peña can’t run again, but his party aims to retain the presidency; a broad Colorado win would show strength, while losses in Ciudad del Este or other large towns would give the opposition a sign of a challenge. The vote offers choices over municipal offices, not a direct say over the national government. The TSJE’s preliminary count was expected to start around 5:30 p.m. local time.