Amid Guatemala’s ‘serious’ problems, comedian wins presidency

Jimmy Morales, the National Front of Convergence party candidate, wearing the Guatemalan national soccer team jersey, accompanied by his wife Hilda Patricia Morales, show their inked fingers after casting their votes during the presidential runoff election at a polling station in Mixco, Guatemala, Sunday, Oct 25, 2015. Morales, a TV comedian, who boasted of his outsider status on the campaign trail, faces former first lady Sandra Torres. AP PHOTO

GUATEMALA CITY— TV comic and self-styled outsider Jimmy Morales won election as Guatemala’s next president Sunday, riding a wave of popular anger against the political class after huge anti-corruption protests helped oust the last government.

Morales claimed victory and his opponent, former first lady Sandra Torres, conceded defeat after official results showed him winning around 69 percent of the votes, with 94 percent of polling stations tallied.

READ: Fed up with graft, Guatemala chooses next president

“We recognize Jimmy Morales’ triumph and we wish him success,” Torres said. “Guatemala has serious problems, but the people made their choice and we respect it.”

The runoff was held a month and a half after President Otto Perez Molina resigned and was jailed in connection with a sprawling customs scandal. His former vice president has also been jailed in the multimillion-dollar graft and fraud scheme.

READ: Guatemala president resigns amid corruption probe

Though the protests have died down since Perez Molina’s resignation, many Guatemalans remain fed up with corruption and politics as usual, and Morales will face pressure to deliver immediately on widespread demands for reform.

“The important thing is that the next government avoids corruption,” said Alexander Pereira, an insurance salesman who was the first to vote at one polling place. “I hope that the next government really makes a change. We had an achievement in kicking out the last government.”

Javier Zepeda, executive director of the Chamber of Industry, said his business group had observed the vote and estimated turnout at around 45 percent to 50 percent, which would be down 20 points from the first round.

“The people already showed their rejection of corruption (in the previous vote) where they kicked politicians out,” Zepeda said.

Morales and Torres were the top two vote-getters in the first round Sept. 6, when presumed front-runner Manuel Baldizon finished a surprising third — a result considered to be a rejection of Guatemala’s political establishment in the wake of the corruption scandal.

The protests began in April after the corruption scandal involving bribery at the customs agency was unveiled by Guatemalan prosecutors and a U.N. commission that is investigating criminal networks in the country.

Investigators first targeted former Vice President Roxana Baldetti, whose personal secretary was named as the alleged ringleader of the scheme, and then Perez Molina.

Morales, like Torres, promised to keep Attorney General Thelma Aldana, a key figure in the investigation, and the U.N. commission in place. He also vowed to strengthen controls and transparency, saying in a debate this past week that the government has controls and auditing powers at its disposal.

“All the elements for auditing available to the presidency and vice presidency are going to be put to work,” Morales said.

But ahead of the runoff, many Guatemalans remained skeptical that either candidate would work to root out entrenched corruption and find honest public servants to form a government.

“I’ve seen the forums and debates and I’m not convinced,” said Oneida de Bertrand, a homemaker who took part in the protests. “They say what we all know about how the country is, but when it comes time to make proposals they don’t say how.”