Guatemalan Presidential Election Pits Former First Lady Against TV Comedian

TV comic and self-styled outsider Jimmy Morales won election as Guatemala’s next president Sunday, riding a wave of popular anger against the political class after huge anti-corruption protests helped oust the last government. But while Morales is scoring points in the polls for being an outsider, his competitor, Senator Torres, a former first lady, hopes his political inexperience will be his downfall. Corruption scandals that saw previous President Otto Perez Molina taken into police custody last month have prompted Guatemalans to throw their support behind Morales, who had never previously been involved in politics and is not considered to be part of what the public now sees as a corrupt political class, according to a Reuters report Thursday.

As he cast his vote for president on Sunday morning, Herbert de Leon, a 49-year-old IT technician, sounded a note of cautious optimism that much-needed change may finally be coming to Guatemala.

“I’m not being complacent”, said Morales, flashing victory signs and dressed in a Guatemala soccer team shirt, after voting in a school in the town of Mixco, not far from the capital.

Former president Perez, who is in jail awaiting trial, is accused of masterminding a corrupt network of politicians and customs officials that took bribes from businesses in exchange for illegal discounts on import duties.

Prosecutors and United Nations investigators say the network collected $3.8m in bribes between May 2014 and April 2015 – including $800,000 each to Perez and jailed ex-vice president Roxana Baldetti.

Sunday’s election was Guatemala’s ninth since the Central American country returned to democracy after a 36-year civil war that ended in 1996.

Morales and Torres jockeyed to position themselves as the anti-corruption candidate.

One of Mr Morales’ most famous comedy roles was that of a useless cowboy who becomes president by accident.

“The new president will face a somber panorama because the state is in a death spiral”, said Manfredo Marroquin, head of the local chapter of Transparency worldwide. Jimmy Morales doesn’t really convince me, I was not even going to vote.

His manifesto runs to just six pages, giving few clues as to how he might govern, and his FCN party will have just 11 out of 158 seats in the next Congress.

However, embezzlement accusations against several close relatives hurt her. But the two candidates, both from traditional political parties, are not exciting Guatemala’s newly emboldened electorate, says 23-year-old university student Andres Quezada.

Torres, a one-time owner of a textile business, was first lady when she was married to Alvaro Colom, Guatemala’s president from 2008 to 2011.

She sought to present a softer side in the campaign, but paid the price of being a political insider in a country fed up with politicians.

The ceremony was presided over by caretaker president Alejandro Maldonado, a former Constitutional Court judge who will serve until the victor is inaugurated on January 14.