Guatemala Ushers In a New Power Base

A Guatemalan opposition candidate whose party was created by a former military dictator was headed for a landslide victory Sunday in a run-off vote to elect the country’s first president since the end of a bloody civil war, early official results showed.

With just more than 14% of the vote counted, Alfonso Portillo of the right-wing Guatemalan Republican Front had 62.1% of the vote, compared with 37.9% for Oscar Berger of the ruling pro-business Party for the National Advancement, electoral officials said.

Portillo, a charismatic former professor and the son of a teacher, claimed victory late Sunday.

Berger, meanwhile, conceded defeat before downcast supporters. “I hope the Guatemalan people have not made a mistake,” he said.

President Alvaro Arzu, who is constitutionally barred from running, acknowledged his candidate’s defeat.

If the results are confirmed, Portillo will take over Jan. 14 from Arzu, whose government ended a 36-year civil war after signing a peace accord with leftist rebels in 1996 but failed to deliver better living conditions to the majority poor.