Guatemala awaits election results

Monday, 10 September 2007

Guatemalans have cast their ballots in presidential and parliamentary elections, after one of the bloodiest campaigns in the country's history.

More than 50 candidates, activists and their relatives were murdered in the run-up to the polls.

The top presidential contenders Alvaro Colom, a centre-left businessman, and a former general, Otto Perez Molina, have vowed to tackle crime and poverty.

Candidates need a 50% majority to avoid a second round run-off on 4 November.

But none are expected to register enough support needed for an outright win.

Mr Colom, who is running for the presidency for the third time in a row, promised to overhaul the security forces and the judicial system, which many criticise for being slow, corrupt and inefficient.

Mr Perez Molina pledged to increase the size of the police force by 50% and revive the death penalty.

Of the 14 presidential candidates, Nobel laureate Rigoberta Menchu is the best-known internationally, but she was trailing far behind the front-runners.

Alejandro Giammattei, from President Oscar Berger's party, also trailed in pre-election polls.

Organised gangs

Guatemala is still suffering the after-effects of the 1960-1996 civil war between leftist rebels and successive military governments, which left nearly a quarter of a million people dead or missing.

An official inquiry concluded that 90% of the crimes committed during the war were carried out by security forces. But very few people have been prosecuted.

According to experts, the violent paramilitary forces that fought during the war were never disarmed - they were just recycled and put to use by organised criminals.

Election violence has been blamed on a combination of attacks on politicians by shadowy armed groups and attempts by organised crime and drug gangs to win influence in political parties.

Like some other countries in Central America and the Caribbean, Guatemala has become a major transit route for the drugs trade into the US.

Other election issues are poverty and unemployment, and the situation of Guatemalans living in the US.