GUATEMALA-ELECTION/CANDIDATES VOTE Candidates, president vote in Guatemalan election
Record ID:
141758
GUATEMALA-ELECTION/CANDIDATES VOTE Candidates, president vote in Guatemalan election
- Title: GUATEMALA-ELECTION/CANDIDATES VOTE Candidates, president vote in Guatemalan election
- Date: 6th September 2015
- Summary: GUATEMALA CITY, GUATEMALA (SEPTEMBER 6, 2015) (REUTERS) ***WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** CANDIDATE FOR THE NATIONAL UNITY PARTY OF HOPE (UNE) SANDRA TORRES ARRIVING AT VOTING CENTRE TORRES PRESENTING IDENTITY DOCUMENT ELECTORAL WORKER LOOKING FOR TORRES' NAME VARIOUS OF TORRES SIGNING TORRES ENTERING VOTING BOOTH TORRES SHOWING BALLOTS AND DEPOSITING IN BALLOT BOX PHOTOGRAPHERS AND CAMERAMEN TORRES SHOWING INKED FINGER TORRES SURROUNDED BY MEDIA (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) CANDIDATE FOR NATIONAL UNITY PARTY OF HOPE (UNE) SANDRA TORRES SAYING: "That everyone comes out to vote. It is important that people participate. If they want to vote blank, that is also important. What is important is that they participate and above all that they vote based on thought. Guatemala needs deep changes. I am willing to make these changes with work, with unity and with transparency." CANDIDATE FROM THE NATIONAL CONVERGENCE FRONT PARTY, JIMMY MORALES, ARRIVING TO VOTING CENTRE VARIOUS OF MORALES SIGNING VARIOUS OF MORALES PUTTING HIS BALLOT IN THE BALLOT BOX PHOTOGRAPHERS MORALES SHOWING INKED FINGER MORALES BEING INTERVIEWED BY MEDIA (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) CANDIDATE FROM THE NATIONAL CONVERGENCE FRONT PARTY, JIMMY MORALES, SAYING: "The transports (meaning politicians transporting voters to the voting centers) have been a bad practice and remain a bad practice. I think the population is the best guarantee of that not happening and that the people do not pay for that. I think that is the most important. This is the work of reconstruction of the same nationality, of nationalism and the citizenship of Guatemalans." TROOPS IN STREETS GUATEMALAN PRESIDENT ALEJANDRO MALDONADO MALDONADO SIGNING MALDONADO AFTER CHECKING BALLOTS VARIOUS OF MALDONADO DEPOSITING BALLOTS IN BALLOT BOX MALDONADO SHOWING INKED FINGER (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) GUATEMALAN PRESIDENT ALEJANDRO MALDONADO SAYING: "The votes that Guatemalans are coming to make with confidence and honour should be repaid with the same attitude. The statesmen will come after the day of the people. The people fulfill [their obligations], the statesmen must fulfill theirs." MALDONADO GETTING INTO CAR PRESIDENTIAL MOTORCADE LEAVING
- Embargoed: 21st September 2015 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Guatemala
- Country: Guatemala
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVA8CD8THQ5LEY7Z3OUZ87UQC6L1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Two of Guatemala's leading presidential candidates joined their fellow Guatemalans voting in the country's presidential election on Sunday (September 6) after a corruption scandal felled their president three days ago.
Polls in the run-up to Sunday's vote showed Jimmy Morales, a 46-year-old centrist and comic actor whose slogan "not corrupt, not a thief," has resonated with disenchanted voters, going head-to-head with earlier favorite Manuel Baldizon, 45, a conservative businessman.
After maintaining a sizable lead over Morales for months, Baldizon had around 23 percent support, just shy of Morales' 25 percent.
Meanwhile, leftist candidate Sandra Torres, the ex-wife of former President Alvaro Colom, narrowly trails Baldizon and Morales. She has vowed to fight poverty by increasing social spending by 0.5 percent of gross domestic product.
Torres cast her vote early.
"That everyone comes out to vote. It is important that people participate. If they want to vote blank, that is also important. What is important is that they participate and above all that they vote based on thought. Guatemala needs deep changes. I am willing to make these changes with work, with unity and with transparency," she said.
Morales voted later, to the cheers of supporters. He decried politicians who were offering to driver voters to the polls.
"The transports (meaning politicians transporting voters to the voting centers) have been a bad practice and remain a bad practice. I think the population is the best guarantee of that not happening and that the people do not pay for that. I think that is the most important. This is the work of reconstruction of the same nationality, of nationalism and the citizenship of Guatemalans," he said.
Finally, Alejandro Maldonado, the former vice president who took over as president after Otto Perez resigned last week, also voted.
"The votes that Guatemalans are coming to make with confidence and honour should be repaid with the same attitude. The statesmen will come after the day of the people. The people fulfill [their obligations], the statesmen must fulfill theirs," he said after casting his ballot.
Experts largely expect Sunday's vote to head to a second-round run-off.
If, as expected, no candidate wins more than 50 percent of the ballots cast by Guatemala's 7.5 million registered voters, the top two will face a run-off on Oct. 25.
Perez resigned as president last week and was jailed while a judge weighs charging him over a customs racket. The affair has gutted his government and plunged the poor Central American country into its worst political crisis in decades.
Perez, a retired general who came to power in 2012 promising to be tough on crime, was set to leave office in January.
As leader of Central America's largest economy, Maldonado's successor will be tasked with tackling a stubbornly high poverty rate, despite nearly uninterrupted economic growth since the end of a 1960-96 civil war. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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