GUATEMALA CITY, Guatemala – Comedian Jimmy Morales led the early count Monday, September 7, in Guatemala's presidential election, after a tumultuous campaign sparked by the jailing of the country's leader over a corruption scandal.
With 58.5% of the ballots counted, Morales – a 46-year-old actor who rose to fame playing a simpleton who accidentally ends up becoming president – was ahead with 26.5% of the vote.
With no candidate likely to take the 50% necessary to avoid a runoff, the election seemed bound for an October 25 second-round run-off between Morales and whichever of the two other candidates finishes second.
Longtime frontrunner and fellow conservative Manuel Baldizon, who had 17.8% of the vote, was neck-and-neck with former first lady Sandra Torres on 16.8%.
The results, which showed the two established politicians bested by a political outsider seemed to demonstrate Guatemalans' exasperation with the traditional political elite.
"The people are tired of more of the same, this is reflected in the results," Morales told reporters after learning of his lead.
The race was rocked by the scandal that felled president Otto Perez, which sparked protests on a scale never before seen in the impoverished Central American nation.
Some protesters had called for the vote to be postponed until anti-corruption reforms could be implemented, but the national electoral tribunal rejected petitions for a delay – triggering concern that many of the country's 7.5 million voters would opt to stay home.
Protest movement
But turnout came in at between 68 and 70%, similar to the last general election in 2011, electoral tribunal chief Julio Solorzano told Agence France-Presse.
The protest movement that has shaken Guatemalan politics since the scandal broke in April, drawing thousands onto the streets for weekly demonstrations, was split over whether to take part in the polls.
An anti-election protest in the capital drew just a few dozen people on election day – though several hundred demonstrated Saturday, some dressed in black and carrying cardboard coffins for a "stillborn" vote.
On Twitter, the hashtag "voting in mourning" was trending in Guatemala – a slogan of reluctant participation.
"It was difficult deciding to vote, but I hope the person I chose can improve the country," said 22-year-old student Andrea Castillo at a polling station on Constitution Square, the center of the protests.
Caretaker president Alejandro Maldonado, who was sworn in Thursday, September 3, called on Guatemalans to use their votes "to punish candidates who deceive them."
Maldonado, a former Constitutional Court judge, will serve until an elected successor is inaugurated on January 14.
The vote was largely peaceful, dispelling fears of violence after clashes on Friday night between supporters of rival parties left one person dead in the southern town of Santa Barbara.
There were no reports of serious incidents Sunday, September 5, though officials said that in several communities protesters put up road blocks to stop local candidates from busing in outsiders, in a country where vote-buying is widespread.
Authorities deployed 35,000 police to provide security.
From presidency to prison
Perez submitted his resignation just before midnight Wednesday, September 2, after Congress stripped him of his immunity and a judge issued a warrant for his arrest.
By Thursday evening, the conservative leader was in jail. A judge will decide Tuesday whether to indict him.
Prosecutors and investigators from a UN commission tasked with fighting high-level graft in Guatemala accuse Perez of orchestrating a scheme that allowed importers to pay bribes to get illegal discounts on their customs duty.
The scheme – dubbed "La Linea" (the line), for a hotline businesses allegedly called to access a network of corrupt officials – collected $3.8 million in bribes between May 2014 and April 2015, including $800,000 each to Perez and jailed ex-vice president Roxana Baldetti, prosecutors allege.
The former president denies involvement.
Perez, a retired general who had been in power since 2012, was constitutionally ineligible to stand for reelection. He spent election day in jail, barred from voting as a criminal suspect.
Voters were also choosing a 158-seat Congress, 338 mayors and 20 delegates to the Central American regional parliament.
Guatemala is still recovering from a 36-year civil war that ended in 1996, and 53.7% of the population lives in poverty.
It also suffers under the scourge of powerful street gangs blamed for giving it one of the highest murder rates in the world.
Corruption accounts for 50% of political parties' financing, and some $500 million in state funds goes missing every year, according to the Central American Institute for Fiscal Studies. – Edgar Calderon, AFP / Rappler.com