GUATEMALA: GUATEMALAS VOTE IN RECORD NUMBERS TO THROW OUT CORRUPTION-TAINTED RULING PARTY

Record ID: 328698

  • Title: GUATEMALA: GUATEMALAS VOTE IN RECORD NUMBERS TO THROW OUT CORRUPTION-TAINTED RULING PARTY
  • Date: 10th November 2003
  • Summary: (U7)GUATEMALA CITY, GUATEMALA (NOVEMBER 10, 2003) (REUTERS) 1. SLV OF EUROPEAN UNION OBSERVERS ARRIVING FOR NEWS CONFERENCE 0.06 2. SV OBSERVERS GATHERED (3 SHOTS) 0.15 3. MCU (Spanish) EUROPEAN OBSERVERS REPRESENTATIVE JANNIS SAKELLARIOU SAYING: "Despite the rumours and the regular acts of violence that are usually registered in the country, the elections progressed with public order with some regrettable acts of serious violence." 0.35 4. SV OF OBSERVERS 0.38 5. SLV OF FORMER MILITARY DICTATOR EFRAIN RIOS MONTT'S CAMPAIGN HEADQUARTERS THAT IS CLOSED 0.43 6. SV OF CLOSED HEADQUARTERS 0.46 7. LAS CAMPAIGN SIGN OF RIOS MONTT 0.48 8. LAS PEOPLE TRYING TO GO INSIDE HEADQUARTERS, TURNED AWAY BY SECURITY 0.54 9. MCU (Spanish) PRESIDENTIAL SPOKESPERSON OF RULING FRG PARTY, ALEJANDRO PEREZ, SAYING: "The people are the ones that have the last word and they were the ones who elected (Oscar) Berger and (Alvaro) Colom who continue on to the second round. He (Rios Montt) is completely willing to accept it because he knows that's how it is and he has absolutely no problem with that." 1.09 10. SV OF SUPREME ELECTORAL TRIBUNAL OFFICIALS REVIEW FINAL RESULTS 1.15 11. CU LARGE SCREEN WITH RESULTS 1.19 12. SV OF WORKERS FOLLOWING RESULTS 1.23 13. LV/SV SUPREME ELECTORAL TRIBUNAL REPRESENTATIVES READING OFF MORE RESULTS (2 SHOTS) 1.38 14. LV OF PEOPLE APPLAUDING AFTER ANNOUNCEMENT OF RESULTS 1.43 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 25th November 2003 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: GUATEMALA CITY, GUATEMALA
  • Country: Guatemala
  • Reuters ID: LVA5GFS6IUL4SQZ91RL0EMNLGP57
  • Story Text: Guatemalans vote in record numbers to throw
    out corruption-tainted ruling party.




    Former military dictator Efrain Rios Montt lost his
    bid to regain power at the ballot box as early results on
    Monday (November 10) showed Guatemalans voted in huge
    numbers to throw out his corruption-tainted ruling party.

    Rios Montt, blamed for civil war atrocities during his
    period of military rule two decades ago, was running for
    the Guatemalan Republican Front, the party of outgoing
    President Alfonso Portillo, but results from Sunday's vote
    showed Rios Montt far behind in third place.

    With one-fifth of votes counted, conservative
    businessman and landowner Oscar Berger had 48 percent
    support, with leftist politician Alvaro Colom in second
    place with 26 percent.

    Rios Montt had just 11 percent of the vote and,
    although his party said votes had not come in from his
    strongholds in the countryside, analysts said the man known
    simply as "the general" was too far behind to catch Colom
    for second place.

    It was not clear if Berger would win enough votes for
    an overall majority and first-round victory. If he falls
    short, he will face Colom in a runoff next month.

    Observers applauded the high turnout as evidence of
    Guatemalans' growing faith in democracy despite rising
    political violence, a boom in organized crime and drug
    trafficking and attacks on journalists, judges and
    activists.

    "Despite the rumours and the regular acts of violence
    that are usually registered in the country, the elections
    progressed with public order with some regrettable acts of
    serious violence," European Observers representative Jannis
    Sakellariou said.

    Rios Montt made no comments about the presidential
    election, just the second since peace accords ended a
    36-year civil war in 1996. His campaign headquarters were
    closed on Monday.

    "The people are the ones who have the last word and
    they were the ones who elected (Oscar) Berger and (Alvaro)
    Colom to continue on to the second round," presidential
    spokesperson for the FRG ruling party, Alejandro Perez,
    said. "He (Rios Montt) is completely willing to accept it
    because he knows that's how it is and he has absolutely no
    problem with that."
    The race reopened wartime wounds in this Central
    American nation of 11 million people, more than half of
    them Maya Indians. The turnout was estimated as high as 80
    percent despite earlier fears of violence.

    Survivors and rights groups blame Rios Montt for
    ordering massacres in hundreds of Indian villages as part
    of a "scorched earth" counterinsurgency campaign during his
    1982-83 dictatorship at the height of the war.

    Some 200,000 people died during the war between leftist
    rebels and a series of right-wing governments.

    As the ruling party's leader in Congress, Rios Montt
    has parliamentary immunity from prosecution, but his term
    ends in January and a group of survivors is building a case
    against him, accusing him of genocide.

    Guatemalans are divided over whether civil war crimes
    should be punished. Some would prefer they be left in the
    past, fearing human rights trials would again polarize the
    country, but others insist justice must be done.

    The United States had expressed strong reservations
    about Rios Montt, saying he would be difficult to work
    with, although he had U.S. backing during his 1980s
    government.

    Portillo took power in a 1999 landslide but has been
    plagued by corruption charges. Rios Montt was seen as the
    power behind Portillo.


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