Guatemala: Preliminary results from Guatemala's presidential elections yesterday confirmed the first-round victory of Mr Oscar Berger, former mayor of Guatemala City, who secured an estimated 46 per cent of votes cast.
Mr Berger will face Mr Alvaro Colom, of the National Union of Hope (UNE) party, who won 27 per cent of the vote, in a second-round runoff scheduled for December 28th.
"My rivals thought that the Guatemalan people would believe their lies," said a smiling Mr Berger, "but they have chosen an honest political party."
Former dictator Mr Efrain Rios Montt, competing on behalf of the ruling Republican Front Party (FRG), finished a distant third, with 14 per cent of votes.
The presidential contest attracted the highest turnout since the country's return to civilian rule in 1985, with at least 60 per cent of eligible voters turning out.
However three women were crushed to death as the endless queues of impatient citizens stretched the abilities of election officials. In rural districts, former civil defence patrol members, agitating on behalf of the ruling party, burned ballots and intimidated voters but the disturbances did not affect the outcome.
While police stood back and allowed the FRG mob to run riot, tear gas and clubs were used to disperse angry citizens attempting to cast a vote at overcrowded booths elsewhere.
In some cases, election officials closed the polling booth at the appointed time despite large queues still outside while in other areas, officials kept booths open until midnight to accommodate the unexpected influx.
The return of Mr Rios Montt, known as the "butcher of El Quiche" for his scorched-earth policy against indigenous villages, may have inspired voters, who formed queues half a mile long in towns where he carried out his massacres.
UN and EU election observers said voting day as calm and relatively normal as 4,000 monitors spread out across the country.
While Mr Colom remained well behind Mr Berger in the first-round vote, he has been promised the support of at least eight opposition parties, who have declared their public opposition to Mr Berger's right-wing Grand National Alliance (Gana).
Polling day began with an ill omen as Mr Colom's right-hand man, Mr Rolando Morales, was shot and injured by gunmen, a reminder that the bullet is never far behind the ballot in this Central American nation.
Its next president will have to negotiate reforms with a new parliament dominated by opposition parties as preliminary results indicated that Mr Berger's party won fewer than a third of seats. The former guerrilla alliance, URNG, was wiped off the electoral map, winning less than 2 per cent of votes, as citizens rejected the sectarian infighting which characterised its campaign.
Mr Rios Montt's elimination from the presidential race hastened the end of the former legislator's immunity from prosecution which expires in January when his term as senator and president of congress comes to an end.