Asunción, November 10 (teleSUR-RHC)-- Paraguay could be headed for a political shake-up as the opposition in the capital city Asunción holds its ground 10 points ahead of the incumbent mayor, according to new poll ahead of the South American country’s November 15th municipal election.

Opposition candidate Mario Ferreiro of the Revolutionary Febrerista Party now has a 16-point lead over the incumbent candidate Arnaldo Samaniego of the ruling Colorado Party, according to a IBOPE CIES poll reported in Paraguay’s Ultima Hora. 

The political shift in Asunción could signal a similar sentiment at the national level to vote conservative Colorado Party President Horacio Cartes out of office in the 2018 presidential election.    

Ferreiro unsuccessfully ran for president against Cartes in 2013 with the center-left coalition 'Forward Country.'

Ferreiro’s social democratic Revolutionary Febrerista Party is now part of the newly formed 'Together We Can' alliance uniting various left and center-left parties.  The coalition also includes the main traditional opposition to the ruling Colorado Party, the Authentic Radical Liberal Party, as well as the left and center-left Guasu Front coalition headed by former President Fernando Lugo.

The election of Lugo in 2008 marked the first time the Colorado Party had lost power in over 60 years.  Lugo was removed from office in 2012 after what critics called a “parliamentary coup.”   

In response to the polls, incumbent Mayor Samaniego criticized his opponents. “The other electoral offers don’t have proposals for the city, their only objective is to get the Colorado Party out of government, in this case the municipal government,” Samaniego told Paraguay’s Telefuturo.

But the rise in Ferreiro’s popularity reflects growing popular discontent with the Colorado Party and its neo-liberal policies. Over the past two weeks, students, teachers, medical staff, and transport workers have launched strikes to protest the lack of government support for public institutions. Campesinos marched on Asunción to demand President Cartes resign and to protest policies that contribute to rural poverty and landlessness.   
     
Amid the wave of protests, diverse social sectors and unions have confirmed their participation in a general strike planned for Dec. 18 to demand freedom of association and solutions to various labor disputes. The action will be the second general strike in President Cartes’ two years in office.

President Cartes has suffered plummeting approval ratings since coming to office two years ago and has also come under fire within his own party.

About 3.9 million Paraguayans, including 300,000 new voters, are eligible to elect 250 mayors and 2,640 councilors to municipal office on November 15th.