Guatemala's presidential election goes to second round in November.
| Autor | Reynolds, Louisa |
After a tense election day on Sept. 11, during which there were riots and disturbances in some parts of the country, on Sept. 12 at 1:30 a.m., Otto Perez Molina, candidate of the right-wing Partido Patriota (PP), gave a press conference in which he said that he was pleased because no other candidate in recent history had managed to surpass the second-place candidate by more than 15% of the vote.
The latest poll, conducted by Canal Antigua, a national cable TV channel, a week before the elections, had predicted that Perez Molina would obtain 52% of the vote, enough to break Guatemala's historic trend, according to which no presidential candidate since the country began to hold democratic elections in 1986 had achieved an outright victory in the first round.
However, the PP fell short of the predicted result, obtaining 36%, while Manuel Baldizon of the Libertad Democratica Renovada (LIDER) won 23.27%. Perez Molina will now face Baldizon in a second round on Nov. 6, and both candidates are already courting other parties across the political spectrum in search of support.
Two days after the elections, Perez Molina announced that he would set up two commissions: one to negotiate alliances with other parties and another to secure support from the elected mayors so that they mobilize their supporters on election day. "It is time for a deep change; I urge all of those who love this country to come together in a national crusade to face the country's problems," he said.
So far, the PP has held talks with Compromiso, Renovacion y Orden (CREO), which came in third in the first round, and the Vision con Valores-Encuentro por Guatemala (VIVA-EG) coalition.
Baldizon also talks about a "great national crusade" against the PP and has held talks with the official Unidad Nacional de la Esperanza-Gran Alianza Nacional (UNE-GANA) coalition, as well as former candidates Mario Estrada of Union del Cambio Nacional (UCN), Juan Gutierrez of the Partido de Avanzada Nacional (PAN), and Adela de Torrebiarte of Accion de Desarrollo Nacional (ADN).
Even before the first round, there was intense speculation about a possible alliance between UNEGANA and LIDER, a party that rose spectacularly in the polls after the Tribunal Supremo Electoral (TSE) banned the official-party candidate, former first lady Sandra Torres, from participating because of a constitutional prohibition that prevents a president's relatives from running for office NotiCen, July 14, 2011.
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