- Title: GUATEMALA: GUATEMALANS VOTE IN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS
- Date: 28th December 2003
- Summary: (U7) GUATEMALA CITY, GUATEMALA (DECEMBER 28, 2003) (REUTERS) 1. VARIOUS OF PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE ALVARO COLOM ARRIVING TO VOTE 0.18 2. VARIOUS OF COLOM VOTING 0.35 3. SCU (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) COLOM SAYING "We are very calm and we are sure that our project will be completed and we are certain of victory. Now we will just calmly wait for the results." 0.46 4. SLV CAR WITH COLOM LEAVING 0.55 5. WIDE OF PEOPLE CHEERING 0.59 6. VARIOUS OF LEADING PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE OSCAR BERGER ARRIVING TO VOTE 1.06 7. SMV BERGER SHAKING HANDS WITH ELECTION STAFF 1.16 8. CLOSE OF ARMBAND ON UNIFORM INDICTATING SECRETARY OF ELECTION TRIBUNAL 1.22 9. WIDE OF BERGER SURROUNDED BY MEDIA SIGNING ELECTION DOCUMENT 1.35 10. SLV FORMER MILITARY GENERAL EFRAIN RIOS MONTT ARRIVING TO VOTE 1.52 11. SMV ELECTION WORKERS 1.56 12. SMV RIOS MONTT VOTING 2.09 13. VARIOUS OF PEOPLE VOTING/ IDENTITY CARDS /FIILLING IN BALLOT PAPERS (6 SHOTS) 2.47 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 12th January 2004 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: GUATEMALA CITY, GUATEMALA
- Country: Guatemala
- Reuters ID: LVAEU9UI78LK4NDPZVIMA7HVTBL7
- Story Text: Guatemalans go to the polls to vote for their next
president.
Guatemalans voted in a presidential election on
Sunday (December 28) between a landowner bidding to regain
power for the farming and banking elite and a leftist who
wants to put a former dictator on trial for human rights
atrocities.
In a run-off election front-runner Oscar Berger, 57, a
former Guatemala City mayor and businessman backed by the
the Central American country's traditional powerbrokers,
squared off against Alvaro Colom, a 52-year-old career
politician who owns a textile factory.
In Guatemala's second presidential election since 1996
peace accords ended a 36-year civil war, voting stations
opened at 7 a.m. (8 a.m. EST/1300 GMT) and were expected to
close at about 6 p.m. (7 p.m. EST/midnight GMT), with early
official results due several hours later.
Polls have shown a clear advantage for Berger, who led
the pack with 34 percent of the vote in the first round
last month, but Colom's team says the polls are too "city
biased" and do not reflect rural support for his National
Hope Unity party, or UNE.
An economist, Colom first ran for president in 1999 and
calls himself "the candidate of the poor" in a nation where
more than half of the 11 million people are Mayan Indians.
Most of the 200,000 people killed in the civil war were
Indians living in dire poverty.
Berger has promised if he wins to clamp down on a
recent wave of violent crime. In the months leading up to
the first round of voting, there were at least two dozen
election-related killings. The violence has since receded.
Both men are promising job creation, rural development
and increased spending on health and education.
Colom is also hoping to pick up votes with his tough
stance against former dictator Efrain Rios Montt, who is
blamed for civil war atrocities during his 1982-1983 rule.
Berger is running for the GANA coalition, which is
backed by Guatemala's traditional ruling elite that lost
power in 1999.
He has been less strident about putting former military
leaders such as Rios Montt on trial for human rights
abuses. Berger's camp says the issue is for the courts to
decide.
Rios Montt, backed by the governing Guatemalan
Republican Front, or FRG, ran for president in the first
round but came in behind Berger and Colom and failed to
make the run-off.
Analysts said Guatemalans voted firmly against Rios
Montt's dictatorial past and against the FRG government of
outgoing President Alfonso Portillo, plagued by corruption
allegations.
- Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
