Guatemalan runoff appears set

Veteran center-left politician Alvaro Colom and former army Gen. Otto Perez Molina finished first and second, respectively, in Guatemala’s presidential election Sunday and will face off in a November runoff, according to exit polls.

The crime and poverty that ravage this county of 12.7 million people were the central issues heading into the campaign, which was tinged with violence, accusations of corruption, and fears that Guatemala may soon return to authoritarian rule after 12 years of democratic presidential elections.

Colom finished first, with 40%, and Perez Molina second, with 33%, according to an exit poll by the Guatevision television network. There were 14 candidates on the ballot. Alejandro Giammattei of the ruling coalition finished third, with 10%, based on the exit poll results.

The result leaves Guatemala with a clear choice between Colom, a technocrat critical of conservative “neoliberal” economic policies, and Perez Molina, a charismatic rightist promising a crackdown on crime.

Across Guatemala, millions turned out amid an often festive atmosphere. In rural communities, campaigns offered free meals to voters. And in at least one town plaza, a marimba band serenaded people as they waited in a long line to cast their ballots.

In San Raimundo, a hillside town about 15 miles by road from Guatemala City, women in traditional Maya embroidered dress voted alongside bus drivers and professionals.

“All we can hope for is for God to help whoever the winner is,” said Teresa Vasquez, a mother of 10 whose husband migrated nine years ago to California in search of work. “The wages you make here aren’t enough to live on.”

About 10% of the 10,500 voters on the rolls in San Raimundo could not vote Sunday: They had left the country in search of work, officials said.

Frustration with the conservative economic policies of outgoing President Oscar Berger, who is barred by the constitution from seeking reelection, helped fuel support for Colom, the 56-year-old scion of a leftist family. The candidate of the National Unity for Hope led polls for weeks before the vote.

“He has a plan that will make things better for us,” said Francisco Lopez, a 60-year-old farmer, explaining why he voted for Colom.

Colom is the nephew of a former leftist mayor of Guatemala City, who was slain during the years of military dictatorship. But Colom stumbled in the final weeks of the campaign after a poor debate performance and an aggressive media campaign by Perez Molina’s Patriot Party.

Perez Molina, 56, a retired former chief of army intelligence, ran on the politically loaded slogan “Vote With a Strong Hand.” The phrase “strong hand” (mano dura in Spanish) is synonymous in Latin America with authoritarian policies.

Repeated in television commercials and countless campaign posters with the Patriot Party’s clenched-fist symbol, the mano dura slogan became a defining element of the campaign.

Perez Molina promised a tough approach on “delinquency” and corruption in a nation where murder-for-hire schemes, street crime and drug trafficking are rampant.

“When the general came on the scene, my family and I decided he was the one who is going to stop the violence,” said Yolanda Climaco of Antigua, explaining why she voted for Perez Molina.

“We own a business, and we can’t work with the fear and insecurity in the country,” she added.

Colom warned often on the campaign trail of a “return to the past,” a reference to the decades of brutal military rule that ended in 1996 with the signing of a peace treaty between then-President Alvaro Arzu and leftist rebels.

“We don’t have a dark past, or any bodies in our closet, like others [on the ballot] do,” Colom told a crowd in the southern city of Mazatenango. “Instead, we talk of peace, of development, and of giving the people hope.”

Other candidates picked up on the theme, including Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchu, the candidate of the Encounter for Guatemala party. Menchu, a Maya, was running fifth in most polls.

“We can’t leave the country in the hands of a military man,” Menchu said Thursday in a speech in Mazatenango. “Please, we’ve already lived that sad history.”

As Perez Molina cast his ballot Sunday in Guatemala City, he lashed out at his opponents.

“I have fought for democracy,” he said, reminding voters that he represented the military during the 1990s peace talks. If elected, he added, “There will be a firm hand, but always following the letter of the law.”

In the 1980s, Perez Molina commanded troops in the western Quiche region during the war against leftist rebels. Human rights groups said army troops in Quiche committed atrocities against the predominantly Maya population. Perez Molina was never charged with war crimes, however.

The current campaign has been marked by violence. More than three dozen local candidates and political activists have been killed.

Some charge that drug traffickers who have attempted to infiltrate some campaigns are behind the killings.

But on Sunday, the vote appeared to go smoothly, with only isolated reports of irregularities.

In San Raimundo, election observers said that the supply of ink, used to mark voters’ hands so they don’t cast ballots twice, had run out. But new ink was quickly procured.

People waited patiently in long lines. In a country where people have grown used to malfunctions, voters were successfully casting ballots: That in itself seemed a kind of victory.

“Healthcare has been neglected, infrastructure too, and the highways -- everything,” said Ramiro Cojon, a doctor, as he waited to vote in a San Raimundo community center. “We come here with the hope we can make all that better.”

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hector.tobar@latimes.com

Special correspondent Alex Renderos in Antigua, Guatemala, contributed to this report.