Colorado Party Keeps Power in Paraguay : South America: Election of engineer Wasmosy should ease tension in military, long allied with the victors.

The Colorado Party of deposed dictator Alfredo Stroessner has renewed its hold on power with the election of engineer Juan Carlos Wasmosy as Paraguay’s president, according to ballot counts announced Monday.

Wasmosy will succeed Gen. Andres Rodriguez, who overthrew Gen. Stroessner in a 1989 coup but remained faithful to the Colorado Party. Stroessner, exiled in neighboring Brazil, had ruled with the Colorados since a coup in 1954.

While Sunday’s election removes the military from the presidency, its results should ease tension in the armed forces by assuring them that their longtime Colorado partners will stay in power at least until 1998.

Wasmosy, 54, is to begin his five-year term Aug. 15. He assured reporters Monday evening that his government will put an end to the military’s traditional political power.

“Have a little confidence in us,” he said. “Let us do the job.”

International observers reported that despite irregularities in the elections, they were the most democratic in the history of Paraguay, which has been ruled by dictators for most of its 182-year history.

“I would characterize the elections as free and fair and democratic and successful,” said former President Jimmy Carter, who led a 31-member delegation of observers that monitored the voting. “The margin of victory was adequate to more than counterbalance any irregularities.”

Projections based on votes counted by an alliance of non-governmental organizations showed Wasmosy winning with about 40% of the vote, Domingo Laino of the Authentic Radical Liberal Party in second place with 33% and Guillermo Caballero of the new National Encounter Party trailing with 25%. Carter said the projections were highly reliable, and a slowly mounting official count was producing similar percentages.

Caballero, a wealthy businessman, had been favored in opinion polls published in late April. At that time, he appeared to have the support of many dissident Colorados who charged that Wasmosy won a party primary election by fraud.

In the last days of the campaign, Colorado bosses concentrated on luring back the dissidents, making generous use of the party’s patronage machine.

“They managed to regroup their electorate,” said political scientist Esteban Caballero.

Many analysts had feared an army revolt if an opposition candidate were to win. Caballero, who is executive director of the private Center for Democratic Studies, said Wasmosy’s victory reduces the possibility of conflict.

But he added that it might also mean some degree of continuing political power for the military. Gen. Lino Oviedo, the powerful commander of the First Army Corps, said recently that the army will continue “to co-govern with the glorious and immortal Colorado Party” for centuries.

Political scientist Caballero said Oviedo is “the man behind Wasmosy” and “might want to have veto power over what Wasmosy does.”

Wasmosy, a civil engineer of Hungarian descent, made millions of dollars from construction work on the $18-billion Itaipu hydro-electric dam, which was built by Paraguay and Brazil in the 1970s and 1980s.

He denies allegations by opposition politicians that he won contracts unfairly with Stroessner’s connivance.

Wasmosy was a Cabinet minister for economic integration under President Rodriguez.