GUATEMALA-ELECTION/POLLS CLOSE Guatemalan polls close and election likely heading to run-off
Record ID:
141772
GUATEMALA-ELECTION/POLLS CLOSE Guatemalan polls close and election likely heading to run-off
- Title: GUATEMALA-ELECTION/POLLS CLOSE Guatemalan polls close and election likely heading to run-off
- Date: 7th September 2015
- Summary: GUATEMALA CITY, GUATEMALA (SEPTEMBER 6, 2015) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF POLLING STATION CLOSING ITS DOORS VARIOUS OF BALLOTS BEING STAMPED BY OFFICIALS BALLOT WITH IMPRINT, "UNUSED" VARIOUS OF OFFICIALS COLLECTING BALLOTS (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) VOTING CENTRE COORDINATOR, GUILLERMO RODAS, SAYING: "As of 6 this afternoon, we closed (the polls). From that moment, there's been no voter inside the voting centre, and so we've begun the ballot processing and validation." VOTING OFFICIALS ORGANISING BALLOTS FOR THEM TO BE COUNTED PILE OF BALLOTS ELECTORAL OFFICIALS TAKING NOTES AT COUNT (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) VOTING CENTRE COORDINATOR, GUILLERMO RODAS, SAYING: "Three forms are in use. One goes to the transport company that takes all the ballots. Another goes via electronic delivering from the computer we have here, and afterwards on our side we carry the ballots to the industry park centre. VARIOUS OF POLITICAL OFFICIALS ACCOMPANY BALLOTS VOTING CENTRE CLOSED
- Embargoed: 22nd September 2015 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Guatemala
- Country: Guatemala
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVABWK3SNDG0FTZ99YOZC1SHVPDO
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Polls have closed Sunday (September 6) for a general election that's occurring in a country still reeling from a corruption scandal that felled their president three days ago. Guatemalans voted to elect a new leader in a tight contest that is likely to head to a second-round run-off.
Otto Perez resigned as president on Thursday 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.
Voter anger over corruption has helped a little-known comedian to surge in opinion polls, while the three main contenders have vowed a crackdown on graft after mass protests on the streets.
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 favourite Manuel Baldizon, 45, a conservative businessman.
Voting centres in Guatemala City were reporting an orderly vote.
"As of 6 this afternoon, we closed (the polls). From that moment, there's been no voter inside the voting centre, and so we've begun the ballot processing and validation," said Guillermo Rodas, a coordinator at a voting centre in the capital.
After maintaining a sizeable lead over Morales for months, Baldizon had around 23 percent support, just shy of Morales' 25 percent, heading into the vote.
While Morales has not laid out a clear political agenda, he has vowed to fight poverty by improving the education system and decentralising the budget and government powers.
Baldizon, a congressman for the centre-right opposition Renewed Democratic Liberty Party (Lider), promises to combat tax evasion, promote government austerity and modernize the state, while also pledging to curb graft.
But corruption allegations have also smudged the ticket, with Lider's vice presidential hopeful Edgar Barquin, a former central bank chief, accused of criminal association and influence trafficking by a powerful United Nations-backed anti-graft commission. He has not been charged.
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.
Mario Garcia, the candidate from Perez's right-wing Patriot's Party, is polling well behind the front-runners.
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, a retired general who came to power in 2012 promising to be tough on crime, was set to leave office in January.
Following his resignation, Congress transferred power to his vice president, Alejandro Maldonado.
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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