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Guatemalans go to the polls today to select a new president
2011-11-06
Posted by: badanov

For a map click here

By Chris Covert

The final round of elections for president of Guatemala takes place today as polls open nationwide today, according to Guatemalan news reports.

The previous election in September ended with General Otto Perez Molina gaining 36 percent of the vote, while his closest rival, populist industrialist Manuel Baldizon gathered 23.4 percent of the vote.

Today's run off election is not expected to be close as General Perez Molina is expected to win handily.

Today's election also ends the reign of the center-left coalition Unidad Nacional de la Esperanza (UNE) represented by outgoing president Alvaro Collom.

The UNE was not able to present a candidate in the election because of the public antics of Collom's wife, Sandra Torres, who made a concious decision to run for president inasmuch as it is illegal for her to do so. She subsequently had attempted to get a divorce to sidestep the rule, but had been rebuffed by the Guatemalan supreme court.

General Perez Molina is considered to be a conservative and a hardliner in Guatemala's war on drugs, who has promised a mano dura or firm hand in dealing with the violence associated with drug trafficking.

Perez Molina is a former military intelligence operative who headed the Guatemalan Army intelligence agency during the turbulent years of the 1980s.

Los Zetas has made Guatemala their territory for transshipment of drug into Mexican and on to the US. The violence associated with the activities was so bad earlier this year, the now outgoing president Colom was forced to ask the Guatemalan legislature to declare a 30 day state of emergency in one department.

The only leftist candidate to run was an independent and literary fraud Rigoberta Menchu, who received less then three percent of the vote.

According to Siglo XXI news daily website, more than 16,000 polling stations opened at 0600 hrs nationwide. Today's vote is expected to be without much violence.

In Chinique, Quiche, more example, than 100 Policia Nacional Civil (PNC) operatives were deployed to the general area including the Zacualpa and Sacapulas neighborhoods.

The area boasted a 75 percent participation rate. Some 6,650 individuals are registered to vote.

A day of prayer for calm and serenity has been called by missionaries in the María Inmaculada and Santa Catalina de la Siena missions.