Guatemalans fed up with corruption ahead of an election that may draw many protest votes

GUATEMALA CITY (AP):

As Guatemala prepares to elect a new president Sunday, its citizens are fed up with government corruption, on edge about crime and struggling with poverty and malnutrition – all of which drives tens of thousands out of the country each year.

And for many disillusioned voters – especially those who supported three candidates who were blocked from running this year – the leading contenders at the close of campaigning on Friday seem like the least likely to drive the needed changes.

Guatemala’s problems are not new or unusual for the region, but their persistence is generating voter frustration. As many as 13 per cent of eligible voters plan to cast null votes on Sunday, according to a poll published by the Prensa Libre newspaper.

Rolando Quiroa, 62, a lawyer in downtown Guatemala City, said he had no hope for positive change in Guatemala because he sees the leading candidates as just a continuation of failed politics.

Quiroa, who declined to say who he would vote for, said Guatemala’s parties had conditioned voters to think merely of what benefits are promised in exchange for votes, but that he wants “a vision to completely change the country.”

“Those with the least chance are the ones who possibly have a different idea of governing,” Quiroa said.

SECOND ROUND OF VOTING

With no single candidate among the field of two dozen candidates polling anywhere near the 50 per cent threshold required for victory on Sunday, a second round of voting between the top two vote-getters appears likely.

The leading candidates heading into the weekend are on the conservative end of the political spectrum. Former first lady Sandra Torres, making her third bid for the presidency, has had success running a populist campaign promising support for those in need.

The real battle appears to be for the second spot in what would be an Aug. 20 runoff. Diplomat Edmond Mulet is wrestling with the ultra-conservative Zury Ríos Sosa, daughter of late dictator Efraín Ríos Montt. They promise heavy-handed tactics like in neighbouring El Salvador to address Guatemala’s crime.

But popular candidates who did appear willing to challenge the status quo, like Thelma Cabrera, an Indigenous leader from the Maya Mam, and Carlos Pineda, a conservative populist who cast himself as a renegade, were kept off the ballot by electoral authorities.