Fernando Lino Oviedo, 64, a retired army chief who helped stage a coup that ended the 35-year military dictatorship of Alfredo Stroessner, trailed in third place with 21 percent, according to the Electoral Tribunal's Quick Preliminary Result Broadcast hotline (TREP) on Sunday.

Lugo, addressing jubilant supporters at his campaign headquarters, said the election showed that "the little people can also win."

"You are responsible for the happiness of the majority of the Paraguayan people today," he said as supporters chanted his name.

"This is the Paraguay I dream about, with many colours, many faces, the Paraguay of everyone."

Exit polls earlier gave Lugo, 56, a 43-37 percent lead over Ovelar, 51, of the ruling Colorado Party who was vying to be Paraguay's first woman president.

Oviedo had 16 percent, according to ABC/Nanduti radio. There is no runoff vote in Paraguay.

Polling stations in Paraguay, the landlocked South American nation of six million people, were open nine hours, in an election that also selected a new congress.

The left-leaning opposition spearheaded by Lugo, 56, who was suspended from his religious order by the Vatican in late 2006 for his entry into politics, had feared fraud would mar the vote.

Source: DDNEWS