Supporters of the presidential candidate for the National Front of Convergence (FCN) party Jimmy Morales, listen during the closing rally of his campaign, in Guatemala City on October 22, 2015. Morales and the candidate for the National Union of Hope (Union Nacional de la Esperanza) party Sandra Torres will face in a run-off election on October 25. AFP
After a campaign upended by a massive corruption scandal that felled the former president, Guatemala elects his replacement Sunday in a run-off between a politically inexperienced comedian and a former first lady.
Comic and TV personality Jimmy Morales is the massive favorite despite never having held office at any level — currently seen as a plus in this impoverished Central American country fed up with revelations of political fat cats stealing public money.
His opponent is Sandra Torres, the ex-wife of former president Alvaro Colom (2008-2011), who will become the country’s first woman president if she manages to pull off an upset.
The final poll before the election gave 68 percent of the vote to Morales, who is running for conservative party FCN-Nacion, and 32 percent to Torres, the candidate of social democratic party UNE.
In the crowded first-round election on September 6, Morales took 24 percent to 20 percent for Torres.
Morales, 46, began the campaign as a long shot, but surged to a surprise lead in a race rocked by president Otto Perez’s resignation and arrest on corruption charges three days before the first-round vote.
Perez, who is now in jail awaiting trial, is accused of running a scam in which corrupt customs officials gave businesses illegal discounts on their import duties in exchange for bribes.
The scheme — dubbed “La Linea” (the line), for a hotline businesses called to access the corrupt network — collected $3.8 million in bribes between May 2014 and April 2015, including $800,000 each to Perez and jailed ex-vice president Roxana Baldetti, say prosecutors and United Nations investigators.
It was the latest in a string of graft scandals in a country where corruption accounts for 50 percent of political parties’ funding and some $500 million in state funds goes missing every year, according to the Central American Institute for Fiscal Studies.
Since Perez’s downfall, the country has been in the hands of Alejandro Maldonado, a former Constitutional Court judge who will serve until Sunday’s winner is inaugurated on January 14.
READ: Guatemala president resigns amid corruption probe | Guatemala names interim vice president amid political crisis
Life imitating art?
Morales rose to fame playing the role of “Neto,” a hayseed who nearly gets elected president by making a string of empty promises, but ends up dropping out of the race and returning to his hometown.
In real life, the comic ran a light-hearted campaign in his first foray into national politics, cracking jokes at rallies but giving few concrete details on policy plans.
“For 20 years, I’ve made you laugh. I promise that if I become president, I won’t make you cry,” he told voters.
Torres, 60, has paid the price of being a political insider, but has gotten firmly aboard the anti-corruption bandwagon.
“Corruption is definitely the worst threat to a government that seeks the well-being of its citizens,” she said.
As head of the government’s social programs during her husband’s administration, Torres was considered a powerful and uncompromising figure, but she has sought to present a softer side on the campaign trail.
Her critics accuse her of taking part in the guerrilla army that fought the Guatemalan government from 1960 to 1996, a civil war that killed some 200,000 people — a claim she has always denied.
She divorced her husband to be eligible for the 2011 election, only to have her candidacy rejected by the Electoral Tribunal on grounds that she was still a close relation of the incumbent.
Her hopes are now pinned on her poor rural base to deliver an upset Sunday.
Guatemala is still recovering from its 36-year civil war, and 53.7 percent of the population lives in poverty.
It also suffers under the scourge of powerful street gangs blamed for giving it one of the highest murder rates in the world.
Guatemala, a country of 15.8 million people, has 7.5 million registered voters.
Polls open at 7:00 am (1300 GMT) and close at 6:00 pm, with the first results expected from 9:00 pm (0300 GMT Monday).