In Guatemalan Election, a Focus on Security Issues [View All]

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Source: The New York Times

MEXICO CITY — Guatemalans streamed to the polls on Sunday to elect a new president, Parliament and local leaders in an election defined by rising concerns about gangs and drug cartels. Voters waiting to cast ballots from the countryside to the capital said they were motivated mostly by the fear of violent crime, and demands for a stronger government response.

“There are innocent people dying in the streets, in the neighborhoods, all over the country,” said Domingo Cabinal Rodríguez, 23, an agronomist in Cotzal, a mountain town north of Guatemala City. “What we most urgently need is security.”

Mr. Cabinal said he was voting for Otto Pérez Molina, a former general who was seen as the front-runner before Election Day. Mr. Pérez Molina was one of 10 presidential candidates, and it was not clear whether he would attract enough votes — 50 percent plus one vote — to win outright.

Experts said that a runoff was more likely, with Mr. Pérez Molina facing either Manuel Baldizón, 41, a wealthy businessman from northern Guatemala who is running as a populist, or Eduardo Suger, 72, an academic who built a network of private universities.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/12/world/americas/12guatemala.html