One Secret to a Latin American Party’s Dominance: Buying Votes (www.nytimes.com)

Nestor Rodrguez, chief of the Tomraho Indigenous community that was given the money, said it was standard. Its just to buy clothes and things for your family, he said.

The losing candidate is challenging the results, claiming irregularities in the vote count.

Vote buying can swing local elections, but rarely national ones, said Ryan Carlin, a Georgia State University professor who has studied the issue.

Many payments are framed as financial assistance, such as money for lunch on Election Day.

In the bordering province of Concepcin, where there are 3,000 Indigenous residents, the Colorado candidate won the governorship by just 28 votes.