Well, we just lived through our first Guatemalan election! It’s quite different from an election in the US or Canada. I think there were over 20 people contesting the office of the president so naturally there was no clear winner. A runoff election between the leading two candidates will be held in November to decide the president. There were also over 40 candidates or family of candidates murdered during the course of the election! On election day, this past Sunday, there was a large display of police and military around the polling places to ensure calm and access to the polling places. The officers and soldiers were carrying all sorts of weaponry from machine guns to grenades and of course the regular shot guns and pistols! It was deemed a peaceful election since only a few ballot boxes were burned and not too many accusations of fraud occurred.
In the weeks leading up to the election it was not uncommon to see all sides of the major intersections taken by opposing parties with flags, banners, loudspeakers and lots of folks waving at passersby. One Sunday when Petra and I were out in the afternoon we happened to see Rigoberta Menchu, the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize winner, and a Guatemalan Presidential Candidate, having a political rally in the town we were at. We have a picture or two in our photo gallery under “Glimpses of Guatemala” of this political rally. She polled at around 2-3%.
