- Title: GUATEMALA: POLLING STATIONS CLOSE AND VOTES ARE COUNTED IN NATIONAL ELECTION
- Date: 4th January 2004
- Summary: (W2) GUATEMALA CITY, GUATEMALA (NOVEMBER 9, 2003) (REUTERS) 1. SLV POLICE CLOSING DOORS TO VOTING CENTRE 0.10 2. MV/SCU ELECTION WORKERS CANCELLING UNUSED BALLOTS; ELECTION WORKERS SEPARATING BALLOTS; MV ELECTION WORKER EXPLAINING TO OTHER WORKERS HOW TO ANALYSE AND COUNT BALLOTS; SCU ELECTION WORKERS COUNTING BALLOTS (17 SHOTS) 1.42 3. (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) LEADING PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE OSCAR BERGER SAYING: "We have all of the tools of polls and analysis, both from our own teams and third parties. We are in a very good position to win these elections with a sufficient margin that eventually could lead us to victory in the first found and if not, put us in a very comfortable position for the second round." 2.08 4. SLV PEOPLE CELEBRATING IN THE STREETS (8 SHOTS) 2.44 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 19th January 2004 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: GUATEMALA CITY, GUATEMALA
- Country: Guatemala
- Reuters ID: LVA6GEB6B6CVMKA7LZDBVUDT79S2
- Story Text: Polling stations close and votes are
counted as Guatemalans await results.
The majority of voting centres in Guatemala closed
their doors on Sunday (November 9) in national elections
that were marred by violence and rising tension over the
presidential comeback bid of a former military dictator
blamed for civil war atrocities.
Some polling booths across the country were kept open
after the 6 p.m. (7 p.m. EST/0000 GMT) scheduled close,
with long lines of voters who had waited hours under rain
or hot sun. Turnout was estimated as high as 80 percent of
5 million potential voters.
Former dictator Gen. Efrain Rios Montt, 77, who is
running for the ruling Guatemalan Republican Front, or FRG,
was in third place in opinion polls with about 11 percent
of the vote ahead of the polling.
With no candidate expected to win the outright majority
and avoid a December runoff, some feared Rios Montt's
supporters would not accept the result, especially if it
were narrow.
Conservative businessman and former Guatemala City
Mayor Oscar Berger, 57, had led in opinion polls but the
latest surveys showed him in a virtual dead heat with
left-leaning career politician Alvaro Colom, 51.
The second presidential race since 1996 peace accords
ended 36 years of civil war, the election opened old war
wounds and touched sensitive issues of class and corruption
in the Central American nation of 11 million people, more
than half of them Maya Indians often living in deep
poverty.
Blamed for atrocities during his 1982-83 rule during
the civil war, Rios Montt inspired controversy and violence
with his decision to stand. Supporters rampaged in the
capital in July after a court ruling temporarily barred him
from running.
Known by supporters as "el general," he has a no-nonsense
reputation and anti-crime platform popular even in some
Indian areas where thousands died under his government's
"scorched earth" campaign to root out leftist
rebels.
He calls for putting aside the past, but to survivors
of war abuses he is the face of a brutally repressive past.
Washington has said he would be difficult to work with.
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