GUATEMALA CITY: Corruption-weary Guatemalans went to the polls Sunday to elect a new president after a tumultuous campaign that saw two leading candidates barred from taking part and the top electoral crimes prosecutor forced to flee the country, fearing for his life.

Besides the president, voters will elect members of Congress and municipal offices. Gang violence, poverty and streams of US-bound migrants have dominated campaigning in Central America´s most populous country, where a crowded field of 19 candidates is vying to succeed outgoing president Jimmy Morales.

The country´s top anti-corruption campaigner, former attorney general Thelma Aldana, is not among them. She was expected to poll strongly, but was barred from running last month over allegations of irregularities dating from when she was a barnstorming public prosecutor. Sandra Torres, a 63-year-old businesswoman and former first lady, heads into the election as the favorite, having built a clear opinion-poll lead over second placed Alejandro Giammattei, also 63.

Torres — candidate for the center-left Unity of Hope party (UNE) — has over 22 percent of voter preferences in the latest polls, while Giammattei, a doctor running for the conservative Vamos party, trails with just over 11 percent.

However, neither is seen as likely to poll strongly enough Sunday to avoid a runoff round on August 11.Analysts believe Torres, a polarizing figure since her years as the Central American country´s first lady, would struggle in a second round, given Giammattei´s ability to unify the conservative vote against her.

Three other candidates are vying for third place, with indigenous woman Thelma Cabrera building momentum in the closing stages of the campaign. Guatemala´s electorate of eight million is also voting in congressional and municipal elections on Sunday.

Torres´s UNE is expected to poll strongly but fall short of a majority in the deeply fractured 160-seat congress. The ex-wife of former president Alvaro Colom, in power from 2008-2012, Torres has pledged health and education reforms as well as jobs to stem the flow of migration to the US.

She has vowed to oppose abortion and same-sex marriage. Giammattei has vowed to bring back the death penalty to help crush violent gangs, fight poverty to stop migration and end “disgusting” corruption.

Monitors from the Organization of American States (OAS), led by former Costa Rican president Luis Guillermo Solis, are supervising the polls. All police leave has been canceled and around 40,000 police have been put on alert, while the military has been mobilized to guard key buildings and jails. Authorities have expressed concern about possible outbreaks of violence in at least 55 municipalities.

Guatemala has one of the world´s highest homicide rates: official statistics put the rate at 22.4 murders per 100,000 people at the end of 2018. Around half the killings are blamed on drug trafficking and extortion operations carried out by powerful gangs. Morales, a former TV comedian who won power in 2015 — beating Torres in the run-off — is obliged to step down under Guatemala´s one-term rules. </s> GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales said on Friday his government has decided not to renew the mandate of a U.N.-backed anti-graft commission that helped bring down his predecessor and also tried to have Morales impeached.

Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales address to the media next to Vice President Jafeth Cabrera at the National Palace in Guatemala City, Guatemala, August 31, 2018. Guatemalan Presidency/Handout via REUTERS

Guatemala gave the commission a year to exit the country.

Working with Guatemala’s attorney general, the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) in 2017 sought to prosecute Morales, a former comedian, over illegal financing allegations during his election campaign two years earlier.

That move followed separate CICIG graft probes into members of the president’s family. Morales tried to throw the CICIG out of the country at the time, prompting criticism at home and from the United Nations and the U.S. State Department.

That bid failed, but Morales argued the CICIG needed to leave because its members were “violating” Guatemala’s laws and “sowing judicial terror” with “selective justice.”

“We have officially notified the Secretary General of the United Nations that we will not renew the mandate of the CICIG,” Morales told a news conference in Guatemala City.

The CICIG’s mandate in Guatemala will expire on Sept. 3, 2019, said a letter Morales sent to U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres. The CICIG had a year to transfer technical capacities to Guatemalan authorities and withdraw, it said.

Though Congress voted not to impeach the president in 2017, Morales’ credibility was damaged due to the CICIG probe.

He has since sought to align himself more closely with the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump.

In December, Guatemala was one of a handful of nations to back Trump’s decision to move the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem in a vote at the United Nations.

Trump has also been critical of the United Nations.

Morales declared CICIG head Ivan Velasquez “persona non grata” in August 2017 and ordered him to leave Guatemala, but the nation’s top court suspended the decision.

CICIG spokesman Matias Ponce told reporters the body appreciated the support of the international community and civil society and would keep the public informed about its next steps.

Morales won office in 2015 running on a platform of honest governance after his predecessor, Otto Perez Molina, was forced to resign and was imprisoned in a multimillion-dollar graft case led by the CICIG. Perez is still in prison while on trial. </s> Corruption-weary Guatemalans went to the polls Sunday to elect a new president after a tumultuous campaign that saw two leading candidates barred from taking part and the top electoral crimes prosecutor forced to flee the country, fearing for his life.

Besides the president, voters will elect members of Congress and municipal offices.

Gang violence, poverty and streams of US-bound migrants have dominated campaigning in Central America's most populous country, where a crowded field of 19 candidates is vying to succeed outgoing president Jimmy Morales.

The country's top anti-corruption campaigner, former attorney general Thelma Aldana, is not among them. She was expected to poll strongly, but was barred from running last month over allegations of irregularities dating from when she was a barnstorming public prosecutor.

Sandra Torres, a 63-year-old businesswoman and former first lady, heads into the election as the favorite, having built a clear opinion-poll lead over second placed Alejandro Giammattei, also 63.

Torres -- candidate for the center-left Unity of Hope party (UNE) -- has over 22 percent of voter preferences in the latest polls, while Giammattei, a doctor running for the conservative Vamos party, trails with just over 11 percent.

However, neither is seen as likely to poll strongly enough Sunday to avoid a runoff round on August 11.

Analysts believe Torres, a polarizing figure since her years as the Central American country's first lady, would struggle in a second round, given Giammattei's ability to unify the conservative vote against her.

Three other candidates are vying for third place, with indigenous woman Thelma Cabrera building momentum in the closing stages of the campaign.

Guatemala's electorate of eight million is also voting in congressional and municipal elections on Sunday. Torres's UNE is expected to poll strongly but fall short of a majority in the deeply fractured 160-seat congress.

The ex-wife of former president Alvaro Colom, in power from 2008-2012, Torres has pledged health and education reforms as well as jobs to stem the flow of migration to the US. She has vowed to oppose abortion and same-sex marriage.

Giammattei has vowed to bring back the death penalty to help crush violent gangs, fight poverty to stop migration and end "disgusting" corruption.

Monitors from the Organization of American States (OAS), led by former Costa Rican president Luis Guillermo Solis, are supervising the polls.

All police leave has been canceled and around 40,000 police have been put on alert, while the military has been mobilized to guard key buildings and jails.

Authorities have expressed concern about possible outbreaks of violence in at least 55 municipalities.

Guatemala has one of the world's highest homicide rates: official statistics put the rate at 22.4 murders per 100,000 people at the end of 2018.

Around half the killings are blamed on drug trafficking and extortion operations carried out by powerful gangs.

Morales, a former TV comedian who won power in 2015 -- beating Torres in the run-off -- is obliged to step down under Guatemala's one-term rules.

His predecessor Otto Perez is in jail for corruption and he himself faces a corruption inquiry into illegal campaign funding.

That was instigated by Aldana and the UN-backed International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) that has put former presidents, ministers and business moguls in jail.

Aldana -- who fled to the United States after receiving death threats -- told AFP her exclusion was orchestrated by those she put in prison and their allies, who saw her as a "hindrance."

Also barred from running was Zury Rios, daughter of late dictator Efrain Rios Montt, under constitutional rules that prevent his relatives from seeking the presidency.

And this week, as polling stations were being prepared across the country, Oscar Schaad, the electoral court's top prosecutor, said he had been forced to flee the country, citing threats to him and his family.

Some polls place Roberto Arzu, son of the late former president Alvaro Arzu (1996-2000), in third place.

Tough-talking Arzu warned criminal gangs he would leave no stone unturned in a quest to hunt them down if he is elected. Then he would give them a choice, he said: "surrender or die on the spot." </s> GUATEMALA CITY, April 18 — A Guatemalan presidential candidate was arrested in Miami yesterday and charged with an elaborate plot to use drug cartel money to win the election and assassinate rivals, according to US officials, two months before voters head to the polls.

Mario Estrada, candidate of the centre-right National Change Union, who is polling far behind other rivals, is accused along with another man, Juan Pablo Gonzalez, of seeking between US$10 and $12 million (RM43.3 and RM49.6 million) from Mexico’s powerful Sinaloa Cartel to fund his campaign and transport cocaine into the United States.

“Estrada and Gonzalez conspired to solicit Sinaloa Cartel money to finance a corrupt scheme to elect Estrada president of Guatemala,” Geoffrey Berman, US attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement.

According to the statement, the two men pledged that if Estrada won the June 16 election, he would help the cartel transport drugs from Guatemalan airports and ports with the aid of complicit security officials.

The two also conspired to kill unnamed rival candidates, the US attorney’s statement said.

The statement added that since January, several meetings with both men in Miami and Guatemala designed to advance the plot were held and recorded, in most cases with both video and audio.

Officials with Estrada’s party did not immediately respond to requests for comment. It could not be immediately determined who was legally representing the two accused men.

US officials said the US Drug Enforcement Agency assisted with the investigation, as well as the Guatemalan government.

Estrada, a 58-year-old former congressman, has lagged far behind in presidential opinion polls, with less than 3 per cent support in one recent survey.

Alfredo Brito, a spokesman for Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales, told Reuters the government would provide Estrada with the support needed to ensure his rights were respected “just like any Guatemalan citizen.”

Estrada “must clarify his legal situation given the accusations that have been made against him,” said Brito, who did not respond when asked to specify how the Guatemalan government assisted in the case.

The National Change Union party, which Estrada founded, holds just six seats in the 158-member Congress, and has typically supported the policies of Morales’ government.

Estrada and Gonzalez, also charged with a related weapons offense, could face life behind bars in the United States if convicted.

The presidential race has been led by Thelma Aldana, the country’s former attorney general; Zury Rios, the daughter of former dictator Efrain Rios Montt; and former first lady Sandra Torres. — Reuters </s> Guatemala voted Sunday on whether to send a long-running border dispute with neighboring Belize to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for final resolution.

Polls closed at 6:00 pm (0000 GMT) after 11 hours of voting, which took place “without reports of security incidents,” according to Supreme Electoral Tribunal president Maria Eugenia Mijangos.

But despite 7.5 million Guatemalans being summoned to the ballot box, the vote was marked by low turnout.

The disagreement, whose roots go back two centuries, has seen tensions spike from time to time. Two years ago Guatemala mobilized 3,000 troops along the densely forested unmarked border zone after an incident in which a Guatemalan teen was fatally shot.

A Belize border patrol had opened fire under being shot at, but an investigation by the Organization of American States ended up finding it not responsible for the teen’s death.

The referendum was agreed under a 2008 accord to send the dispute to The Hague-based ICJ, if the populations of Guatemala and Belize approved.

Observers from 25 countries were on hand to monitor the polling.

Belize has not yet fixed a date for its referendum on the issue, although officials say it could take place next year.

The Guatemalan plebiscite question asks voters to respond “yes” or “no” as to whether any legal claims by Guatemala against Belize relating to its territories “should be submitted to the International Court of Justice for final settlement” and boundary determination.

The country has an electorate of 7.5 million people, but analysts believe turnout could be lackluster, perhaps as low as 10 percent.

The head of Guatemala’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal, Maria Eugenia Mijangos, told reporters that voter apathy was a big risk. Efforts by Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales to boost turnout have foundered on the rocks of his low popularity.

On Sunday, Mijangos said: “We are calling on all Guatemalans, especially the youth making up the majority of the electorate, to participate, to go to polling stations to put in their vote on this very important issue which has taken so many years to find a solution to.”

Morales said as he voted that the two countries had “very good bilateral relations” and he hoped the dispute could be resolved.

Guatemala has made claims over more than half of Belize’s territory, dating to when its English-speaking neighbor was a British colony known as British Honduras.

The border issue goes back to 1783 when Spain — the former colonial power over what is now Guatemala — gave Britain the right to occupy the territory that became Belize and exploit its timber in exchange for combating piracy. A century later, it became a British colony.

In 1964, British Honduras won the right to self-government, then in 1973 renamed itself Belize.

Independence came in 1981, though a British military presence remained until the mid-1990s because Guatemala refused for a decade to recognize it as a new country. </s> Guatemalans are geared up to elect the successor of Jimmy Morales in Sunday’s election.

Guatemalans headed to the polls Sunday to vote for a new president and elect the successor of President Jimmy Morales. Nearly eight million Guatemalans are voting this election.

A total of 19 candidates will compete in the election, which is expected to yield no outright winner, forcing the top two vote-getters to face off in a second round on Aug. 11.

The voting centers opened at 7:00 am local time and are expected to close at 6:00 pm local time. The winner will take office on Jan 14.

Among those leading the polls is Sandra Torres — wife of ex-President Alvaro Colom, a representative of the social democratic party, National Union of Hope (UNE).

Following her is a great number of contenders led by Alejandro Giammattei of the newly established Vamos party, the former director of the jail system. Next is Roberto Arzu of the right-wing Pan-Podemos and finally Edmundo Mulet of the Guatemalan Humanist Party.

However, the Times News reports widespread discontent, with voters saying they don't trust any of the candidates, especially in light of a campaign plagued with scandals in which three candidates were disqualified for ethics violations.

There are big challenges for the next president of the country who will be expected to provide solutions to voters' urgent concerns, which include a slowing economy, growing poverty, wild corruption and high levels of crime.

Corruption has always characterized the country’s political life. In an effort to address the problem, the government of Oscar Berger (2004-2008) invited the United Nations to create the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) to inquire into corruption and crime in the country.

The progress made by the CICIG came to an end during Jimmy Morales presidency and his broken promises have produced immense dissatisfaction among Guatemala’s population.

In August, President Morales said he would end the commission’s mandatewhen it expires in September 2019. At that time he also prohibited its director, Ivan Velasquez, from reentering Guatemala from his home country of Colombia and ordered the government to withhold the passports of over 30 of its employees.

This all unfolded just days after the commission was getting closer and closer to investigating the president and his National Party (NP), for illicit campaign financing during Morales’ 2016 run for head of state, among other charges. </s> Islanders of Ambergris Caye and Caye Caulker in Belize Rural South (BRS) came out in a steady flow on Wednesday, May 8th to participate in the Territorial Dispute Referendum on whether to take the Guatemalan claim to the International Court of Justice (ICJ). After polls closed at 6PM, a total of 4,253 had cast their vote in BRS. Three hours later, the results were in and with a total of 2,373 against 1,857, the ‘YES’ vote won, with the majority of support recorded in San Pedro Town.

At the polling stations countrywide, Belizeans were asked to either vote ‘YES’ or ‘NO’ on the question: "Do you agree that any legal claim of Guatemala against Belize relating to land and insular territories and to any maritime areas pertaining to these territories should be submitted to the International Court of Justice for final settlement and that it determine finally the boundaries of the respective territories and areas of the Parties?"

Throughout the day, members of both the ruling United Democratic Party and the Opposition People’s United Party encouraged citizens to come out and exercise their democratic right to vote. in Caye Caulker, which carried the polling stations #34 and #38, 385 votes favored the ‘NO’ option, while 341 electorates voted ‘YES’. One ballot was rejected. Hicaqueños said ‘NO’ to the ICJ by a margin of 44 votes.

Meanwhile, in San Pedro Town, Polling Area #37, a total of 2,032 voted ‘YES’, and 1,472 voted ‘NO’ to settling the dispute at the ICJ. 22 ballots were rejected in San Pedro. After tallying the total number of votes, ‘YES’ prevailed in BRS by 516. Returning Officer Martin Alegria shared with the media that the process went smoothly and there were no disputes nor was there any mischief during the process. Nevertheless, he would have liked to see more Belizeans come out and vote.

BRS Area Representative Honorable Manuel Heredia Jr., was more than satisfied with the results and indicated that it was the will of the people. “Everyone wants to end with this dispute, and today the people spoke and decided to deal with and move on as a country,” said Heredia. He added that thanks to the ICJ campaign, many people made an informed decision.

Across the country, unofficial reports give the same story as BRS, with the ‘YES’ vote leading. In many areas, the vote in favor of the ICJ was unexpected. Overall, 65% of the 148,500 of electorates that re-registered came to vote. The Belize District registered the highest turn out with 69%, while in the Toledo District, only 59% came out to cast their vote.

Now that Belizeans have opted to take the territorial dispute to the ICJ, the government must start preparing to face Guatemala at this international court. In the next six months, both countries will have the time to start planning their presentations, which will take place inside the Peace Palace, at The Hague, Netherlands, where the ICJ is headquartered. Guatemala will first present its evidence on her rights over Belize. Belize will then have six months to dispute the Guatemalan claim and convince the judges that its neighbor to the west has absolutely no title or rights over the Jewel.

For a complete report on the referendum process, look for our detailed story in the print issue of The San Pedro Sun out this Friday, May 10th.

Follow The San Pedro Sun News on Twitter, become a fan on Facebook. Stay updated via RSS </s> A woman jogs past political campaign posters at Reforma avenue in Guatemala City, early Saturday, June 15, 2019. The road to Sunday’s presidential election in Guatemala has been a chaotic flurry of court rulings and shenanigans, illegal party-switching and allegations of malfeasance that torpedoed the candidacies of two of the top three candidates. (AP Photo/Oliver de Ros)

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — Guatemalans head to the polls Sunday to choose their next president, as well as a vice president, congressional representatives and mayors. With 19 candidates in the race for president, a runoff vote is likely in August.

Unemployment, violence, corruption, rising costs of living and the shoddy state of the country’s highways are among top concerns for the country’s electorate. Surging migration has not emerged as a major campaign issue, even as an estimated 1 percent of Guatemala’s population of some 16 million people has left the country this year.

Here are the top-five candidates for president based on recent polls:

Polls favor former first lady Sandra Torres of the National Unity and Hope party to finish first, but it is unlikely she will get enough votes to avoid a runoff. Torres, 64, is a businesswoman who gained national prominence during the 2008-2012 government of her then-husband, Álvaro Colom, when she served as coordinator of the Council on Social Cohesion, an entity dedicated to helping the marginalized and the poor. The couple divorced in 2011. This is the third time Torres has tried to run for president. Prosecutors opened an investigation into alleged illicit campaign financing involving her party. The case has not moved forward because candidates are protected from prosecution.

This four-time presidential candidate and former prison director is best-known for having put down a prison uprising in which several hostages were killed.

A businessman and son of a former president, Arzú is polling close to Giammattei for second place. Arzú, who was once president of a soccer club, represents a coalition of conservative parties.

A lawyer, journalist and diplomat who was accused of running an international child adoption ring in the early 1980s that spirited orphans and other children who may have been abandoned out of Guatemala. Mulet, 68, later became the highest ranking Guatemalan in the United Nations.

The only indigenous candidate in the race and the top contender from a left-leaning party. Cabrera, 43, is a human and land rights defender from the indigenous Mam community. </s> GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — A former first lady led early Monday in voting counting from Guatemala’s presidential election, although a runoff ballot appeared likely to determine the next leader of this Central American nation where tens of thousands have fled poverty and gang violence this year to seek a new life in the United States.

With votes tallied from just over a third of polling centers by late Sunday, Sandra Torres had 24% of the vote, followed by four-time presidential candidate Alejandro Giammattei with 15%. The early results were in line with expectations.

Businessman Roberto Arzú, diplomat Edmond Auguste Mulet Lesieur and indigenous human rights advocate Thelma Cabrera rounded out the top-five candidates for the presidency.

A candidate would need more than 50% of votes to win the first round outright The runoff election likely would take place in August. Presidents are limited to a single, four-year term.

The next president will take office in January needing to stem growing violence, poverty and outward migration. An estimated 1 percent of Guatemala’s population of some 16 million people has left the country this year.

WATCH: On the U.S.-Mexico border, crowds of migrants and a ‘broken’ system

Guatemalans are also clamoring for a crackdown on corruption: Three of the last four elected presidents have been arrested after their terms of office on charges of corruption.

Torres, 64, is a businesswoman who gained national prominence during the 2008-2012 government of her then husband, Álvaro Colom, who is among the former leaders to have been accused of corruption. The couple divorced in 2011.

“There is a belief that instead of advancing in these four years of government, we’ve gone backward,” said Marco René Cuellar, 39, the first to vote Sunday at the Mixed Rural School in the municipality of Santa Catarina Pinula. “We’ve lost our way as a country, but we should not lose faith in the democratic process we have.”

More than 8.1 million citizens were eligible to vote for the vice president, congressional representatives and mayors.

The election marked the first time that Guatemalans could cast ballots from abroad. At least 60,000 were eligible to vote in Los Angeles, New York, Maryland and Washington, all home to large numbers of Guatemalan emigres.

On Sunday, municipal officials and police stood guard as many waited in line to cast their ballots in an election dinged by threats of violence and possible fraud.

To the east of the capital, in the Zacapa department, voting stations didn’t open in the San Jorge municipality after organizers were threatened with violence. More than 7,000 people were unable to cast votes there. Voting was also called off in Esquipulas Palo Gordo, near the border with Mexico in the San Marcos department, amid accusations of vote-buying.

The attorney general’s office launched an investigation after a voter posted a video to social media showing how her ballot was allegedly already marked for Torres.

The campaign season was marked by a chaotic flurry of court rulings, shenanigans, illegal party-switching and allegations of malfeasance that torpedoed the runs of two of the three front-runners, including Chief Prosecutor Thelma Aldana.

Aldana gained international renown for leading crusading anti-corruption investigations in tandem with a U.N.-backed anti-graft commission operating in Guatemala, but was booted from the race on the grounds that she lacked a document certifying that she didn’t have any outstanding accounts from her time overseeing a public budget as prosecutor.

Outgoing President Jimmy Morales, who was barred from seeking re-election, took office in 2016 promising to root out corruption after his predecessor was brought down by a probe led by the U.N.’s International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala, or CICIG. But Morales soon became a target of CICIG himself for alleged campaign finance violations, starting a bitter dispute with the agency in which he terminated its mandate.

A recent poll from CID Gallup Latinoamerica found that nearly a third of Guatemalan adults surveyed believed the election would be plagued by fraud. Twenty percent said the election’s legitimacy would be suspect because so many candidates were kept from running.

Unemployment, violence, corruption, rising costs of living and the shoddy state of the country’s highways are among top concerns for the country’s electorate.

But Fernando Barrillas, 44-year-old Guatemalan citizen, said surging migration was also an issue for him.

“As long as the root causes that propel migration are not addressed, which are poverty and inequality, we will continue to remain without the best men and women, young people who they are the engine of the country,” he said.
Citizens of Guatemala head to the polls to vote for their next president and new members of the country's congress.