Guatemalans vote on leader

Election comes after scandals oust president, two others

Women cast their votes Sunday at a polling station in Mixco, Guatemala.
Women cast their votes Sunday at a polling station in Mixco, Guatemala.

GUATEMALA CITY -- After a week in which they saw their president resign and spend the weekend in jail for his alleged role in a corruption scheme, Guatemalans voted Sunday to choose a new president.

With about 34 percent of polling stations reporting late Sunday night, TV comedian Jimmy Morales, who has never held elective office, was leading with nearly 26 percent of the vote.

He was followed by businessman and longtime politician Manuel Baldizon, with about 19 percent, and former first lady Sandra Torres, with about 18 percent.

If no candidate in the field of 14 gets a simple majority, the top two finishers will advance to a runoff Oct. 25.

With scandals now having forced their president, vice president and central bank president to step down or await trial in jail, government corruption emerged as a top concern of voters in Central America's biggest economy. As many as 70,000 people in the country of 14.6 million turned out at rallies this year demanding former President Otto Perez Molina's resignation, which was accepted in a unanimous vote in Congress on Thursday. Alejandro Maldonado, 79, who was named vice president in May, was appointed to finish Perez Molina's term last week.

Guatemalans began heading to the polls after they opened early Sunday to also elect a vice president, members of Congress and the Central American Parliament, and local authorities for municipalities nationwide.

Maldonado was one of the first to vote. He said it was citizens' responsibility to vote, and then elected officials' responsibility to live up to their duty.

About 7.5 million people are eligible to vote. The Security Ministry said it dispatched 34,000 agents across the country for the election.

Attorney General Thelma Aldana said authorities had received about 1,200 complaints related to the election, including the burning of some ballots in the municipality of Patzun, north of the capital.

"After all these corruption scandals, we need a government that is more cautious, that reduces corruption and that improves the use of public funds," Anna Lucia Villatoro, a 34-year-old business manager, said in Guatemala City.

A key question was the level of protest vote in the face of the corruption scandal. Activists were urging voters to go to the polls wearing black clothes of mourning, abstain or cast null ballots. On the streets, it was hard to find a campaign poster that hadn't been covered with insults. Tens of thousands had joined demonstrations asking for the vote to be postponed.

Baldizon, Morales and Torres had all backed the resignation of Perez Molina, who the attorney general said last month received bribes from companies seeking to avoid customs taxes. Facing a judge last week, Perez Molina said he never "received a cent" and that he has "nothing to hide." Former Vice President Roxana Baldetti, who has been jailed as her trial in the same case continues, has also rejected the accusations.

The political crisis has had little effect on the $59 billion economy, which exports coffee, textiles and gold and serves as a gateway between Latin America and the U.S. for migrants and drugs. Gross domestic product is expected to expand between 3.6 percent and 4.2 percent this year, interim central bank President Sergio Recinos said last month.

Baldizon has pledged to limit spending if elected and said he will continue plans to build a gas pipeline connecting Mexico and Guatemala.

"Employment, education and the fight against corruption are priorities in our government plan," he wrote on his Twitter account.

But after Baldizon's campaign blew past the legal ceiling on electoral costs, he ignored orders to stop spending.

Morales, 46, boasts of his outsider status and says he is part of the uprising against corruption. He has promised greater transparency, including media review of government contracts.

Torres, 59, divorced former President Alvaro Colom ahead of the last presidential race to try to get around rules barring presidential relatives from running, but was still ruled ineligible. A businessman and longtime political party figure, she is proposing a coalition government to respond to the concerns of outraged citizens.

Rios, 47, is the daughter of former dictator Efrain Rios Montt, who faces charges of crimes against humanity for killings by security forces during his 1982-83 regime. She emphasizes her experience from 16 years in Congress, where she promoted laws against discrimination and drug and human trafficking.

Information for this article was contributed by Michael McDonald of Bloomberg News and by Sonia Perez D. and Alberto Arce of The Associated Press.

A Section on 09/07/2015

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