Election-Related Violence Tops Headlines in Guatemala

[dipsydoodle]

Guatemala, Jun 18 (Prensa Latina) Preparations for general elections continued this week in Guatemala, as did election-related violence, with a tragic and worrying outcome.

San Jose Pinula, a municipality southeast of the capital, has two vacant places among its candidates for mayor, after both were shot shot to death in actions that local authorities said were not politically motivated.

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It was announced this week that 7.895 million Guatemalans may vote in the September 11 elections, and that women outnumber men by 75,000 on the voter rolls, which were being checked for eligibility.

The few pre-election surveys that have been held showed candidates from the opposition Patriot Party in the lead, especially retired general Otto Perez Molina, the party's presidential candidate.

http://www.plenglish.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=298365&Itemid=1

[Judi Lynn]

1. Guatemala’s Elections: Clean Polls, Dirty Politics

Guatemala’s Elections: Clean Polls, Dirty Politics
Latin America Briefing N°24
16 Jun 2011


OVERVIEW

Guatemalans go to the polls in September 2011 to elect a president, the Congress and local officials. The vote itself is likely to be reasonably free, but violence and unregulated campaign finance imperil the country’s political institutions. Deteriorated security, drug traffickers’ brutality and polarised politics leave candidates especially vulnerable to attacks. An exorbitant campaign, meanwhile, threatens to indebt office-holders to powerful financial interests, including organised crime, deepening corruption and widening the gulf between citizens and their politicians. State security agencies should redouble efforts to prevent bloodshed, especially in the most dangerous municipalities; politicians and parties must fully reveal who funds them, and the Public Prosecutor’s office, electoral authorities and donors should press them to do so.

The presidential contest will probably pit Otto Pérez Molina, former head of military intelligence, against Sandra Torres, recently divorced wife of incumbent Álvaro Colom, though legal hurdles could still halt Torres’s bid and leave the ruling party scrambling for a replacement. Pre-election violence has already claimed candidates, their families, party activists and electoral staff, mostly at the hands of unidentified gunmen. As drugs cartels battle over transit routes, competition in those areas for the local government posts whose collusion facilitates trafficking may be particularly fierce. Mudslinging and harsh rhetoric from both major parties have set the tone for an ugly campaign. Polarisation between the camps, in both the capital and some municipalities, raises the spectre of disputed results. A flawed registration exercise, while unlikely to seriously impact the quality of the elections, could give losers a pretext for challenges.

Unregulated political finance poses a threat more subtle than violence but as dangerous to political life. Reforms have required parties to limit campaign spending and reveal their financial backers, but politicians disregard the new rules with impunity. Recent election campaigns have been among the costliest, per capita, on the continent, and spending in 2011 looks set to outstrip even previous records, skewing the playing field and – worse still – leaving politicians beholden to shadowy business and criminal interests, many of which are vested in continued lawlessness and a weak state. Political parties provide no protection. Fragmented, disorderly, unrepresentative and largely ideology-free, they offer little to link state and society beyond populism and patronage. Unrestrained money in politics contributes to a rotten and exclusive system that reasonably free voting every few years does little to hide, let alone reform.

More:
http://www.crisisgroup.org/en/regions/latin-america-caribbean/guatemala/B024-guatemalas-elections-clean-polls-dirty-politics.aspx

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