Description of Electoral System

(Courtesy of Wikipedia)

Elections in Guatemala include, on the national level, a head of state – the president – and a unicameral legislature. Guatemala's president and vice-president are elected on one ballot for a four year term by the people. The Congress of the Republic (Congreso de la República) has 158 members, elected for a four-year term, partially in departmental constituencies and partially by proportional representation.

Electoral Systems Snapshot

(Courtesy of International IDEA)

*Click on links for definitions

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ELECTIONS
Runoff Election, November 4, 2007

The figures were taken from the page of Tribunal Supremo Electoral of Guatemala.

Last September 9, Guatemala carried out presidential and legislative elections. At that election, Colom surpassed his closer contender by four percentage points.

Due to the fact that none of the candidates obtained a majority in the first round, Álvaro Colom and Otto Pérez participated in a second round for the presidency last Sunday.

Once again, more than 5.9 millions of electors had the opportunity to cast their votes during the polling day. However, there was a low turnout with only 2'895,613 votes, being valid 2'743,798 of them.

Álvaro Colom of the National Unity of Hope (UNE) was declared the official victor on Monday with 53% of the valid votes cast.

In light of the results of the second round, it seems that the fact that Álvaro Colom resumed his discourse upon promoting a policy of fighting corruption inside the police forces, as well as promising solutions for the social problems the nation have have to put up for many years, persuaded the electors.

On the other hand, Pérez Molina proposed an "iron fist" policy to strive against impunity and violence in the streets of Guatemala byincreasing the police forces and reinstating the capital punishment.

See the preliminary election results.

2003 Election

(Courtesy of Wikipedia)

The ruling Republican Front of Guatemala (FRG) nominated former military ruler Efraín Ríos Montt to succeed outgoing president Alfonso Portillo Cabrera. A constitutional ban on former coup leaders (Ríos Montt during 1982-83) led to strong conflict inside the country, including the besiegement of Guatemala for a day: July 24, 2003, known as jueves negro ("Black Thursday"). In the first round of voting, Ríos Montt came third behind the centrist mayor of Guatemala City, Óscar Berger, and the more left-wing candidate Álvaro Colom.

Since no candidate secured an absolute majority in this first round, a runoff vote between the top two candidates was held on December 28, which Berger won with 54% of the votes.

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