Guatemalans head to crucial presidential runoff, hoping for real change

After a tumultuous campaign, Guatemalans have headed to the polls to elect a new president, hoping that the country’s next leader will provide relief from rising prices and get a handle on crime and corruption.

Polling stations opened at 7:00 am local (1300 GMT) and voting was to end at 6:00 pm (00:00 GMT) on Sunday with first results expected later in the evening.

The two candidates offer starkly different paths forward.

Former first lady Sandra Torres became an ally of outgoing, deeply unpopular President Alejandro Giammattei in her third bid for the presidency.

Her opponent, Bernardo Arévalo, with the progressive Seed Movement, rode a wave of popular resentment toward politics to his surprise spot in the runoff.

Central America’s most populous country and the region’s largest economy continues to struggle with widespread poverty and violence that have driven hundreds of thousands of Guatemalans to emigrate in recent years.

Concerns over democracy

The first round of voting on June 25 went relatively smoothly until results showed Arévalo had landed an unexpected spot in the runoff.

The fact that the preliminary results were dragged into Guatemala’s co-opted justice system has raised anxiety among many Guatemalans that voters will not have the final word Sunday.

Guatemala's Attorney General’s Office is investigating Arévalo’s party for allegedly gathering fraudulent signatures for its registration years earlier. The party has dismissed the accusations as politically motivated.

Torres, in her closing campaign event Friday in Guatemala City’s sprawling central market, suggested she would not accept a result that didn’t go her way.

“We’re going to defend vote by vote because today democracy is at risk (and) because they want to steal the elections,” she said.

Arévalo, a lawmaker and former diplomat, is the son of former President Juan José Arévalo, the first leftist president of Guatemala’s democratic era.

The elder Arévalo is still revered by many for establishing fundamental elements of Guatemalan society such as social security and labor regulations.

But Torres has painted her opponent as a radical leftist who threatens Guatemalans’ conservative values on issues including sexual identity and abortion.

Greater chance for change

Torres picked the capital's main market as the local heart of her populist pitch, starting and ending her campaign in this hub of commerce. But some vendors there said they see a greater chance for change in Arévalo.

One of them is Enrique Velásquez, who sells thread, yarn and other supplies.

The 29-year-old is part of a youth boom in a country where the average age is 26, compared to 38 in the United States. He hopes an Arévalo administration would generate more confidence in the country’s politics and make real changes rather than just promises.

As for Torres’ attempts to paint Arévalo as a threat to Guatemalan families, Velásquez said that she is really only talking about defending one kind of family, the one with a mother, a father and children.

But, he added, there are single mothers and single fathers, grandparents raising grandchildren, divorcees and widows from the country’s violence. “They wouldn’t take those people into account."