Guatemala Votes, Hopes for Peaceful Election

GUATEMALA CITY — After a bloody campaign season that saw nearly 50 candidates slain, Guatemalans went to the polls Sunday amid fears of violence and mudslides.

The presidential election appeared headed for a runoff between the two favorites: Otto Perez Molina, an ex-army general who promised to attack organized crime, and Alvaro Colom, a centrist who finished second in 2003.

An exit poll by the daily El Periodico gave Colom 36 percent of the vote compared to 29 percent for Perez, with both candidates short of the 50 percent needed to avoid a second round.

Election observers had reported no major incidents of violence Sunday afternoon, although the Guatemalan media reported that voters were threatened in some locations.

Officials with Colom's party were reportedly seized by villagers in the northwest part of the country and a mayoral candidate was threatened by townspeople who thought he had voted twice, El Periodico reported on its Website. Police used tear gas in southern Guatemala to disperse angry crowds that tried to burn a voting station, local media reported.

Guatemalan Vice President Eduardo Stein called the relative lack of violence "an extraordinary thermometer of the dedication and responsibility of the citizenry."

The weather created havoc in various parts of the country, with an early morning mudslide on a busy highway near Guatemala City and some remote towns still affected by rains from the remnants of Hurricane Felix. More heavy downpours on Sunday throughout the country caused sporadic power outages.

The weather created havoc in various parts of the country, with an early morning mudslide on a busy highway near Guatemala City and some remote towns flooded by rains from the remnants of Hurricane Felix.

Observers have blasted the Guatemalan Congress for setting the election in the height of the rainy season. Voting booths were also set up for the first time in rural villages, adding to the logistical problems.

But election officials called Sunday's election – the fourth since Guatemala's civil war ended in 1996 – a success, and estimated that the election would break the record for voter participation.

In the nation's capital, graffiti shouting "No more military men!" illustrated the concern over Perez's candidacy in a country still recovering from 36 years of war between leftist guerrillas and a right-wing military dictatorship.

Other campaign posters warned Guatemalans "If you vote for a drug trafficker, that makes you a drug trafficker as well," highlighting what is likely a bigger concern — the presence of powerful drug cartels in the electoral process.

Most experts attributed the campaign violence to Guatemala's newly powerful drug gangs trying to exert influence over local candidates, especially near the Mexican border. Guatemala's remote jungles have become a favorite landing spot for South American cocaine shipments headed north to Mexico and the United States, according to law enforcement officials.

While Colom once held a comfortable lead in the polls, worries over growing insecurity vaulted Perez into a virtual tie.

"We hope (Perez) can stop this violence," said Melvin Valdez, a businessman in Guatemala City, where Perez found a bastion of support among professionals and middle and upper-class Guatemalans tired of the insecurity. "I feel he's offering something for the problem."

Nobel Prize winner Rigoberta Menchu, who became the first indigenous woman to run for president was expected to finish far out of the running as her campaign never gained traction.