Guatemala: Tight race for presidency

The two candidates vying for Guatemala’s presidency are running neck-and-neck with about 16 days to go before Sunday’s election runoff. Right-winger Otto Perez and leftist Alvaro Colom have been in a statistical dead heat for weeks. Perez has vowed to be tougher on crime and corruption than his rival while Colom accused Perez’ campaign of sending him death threats.

Unfortunately campaign violence has not abated in the days leading to the runoff with politicians and labor leaders slain on a near daily basis.

In another worrying development, the political factions representing Colom and Perez have spent nearly $90 million over the past 18 months on things like renting buses for voters to go to the polls. It is the sparing of no expense by either side that worried one Guatemalan columnist:

These figures can be analyzed from many angles, but they prove an anxiety held by several social groups: the elections are a political game based on money. It’s a pistocrasia and whoever donated the most feels entitled to the best lands.

Image- Al Jazeera (Guatemalans lined up to vote in the first round last month)

Sources (English)- International Herald Tribune, Reuters, Angus Reid Consultants, The Latin Americanist

Sources (Spanish)- elPeriódico de Guatemala, Prensa Libre