Guatemalan Presidential Voting Delayed [View All]

[Judi Lynn]

11:45 PM PST, November 9, 2003


Guatemalan Presidential Voting Delayed

By TRACI CARL, Associated Press Writer


GUATEMALA CITY — Guatemalans lined up for hours at polling stations Sunday during the country's second consecutive peacetime presidential elections, turning out in such force that officials had to extend the vote late and delay official results that will determine the future of an infamous former dictator.

The U.S. government has warned that U.S.-Guatemalan relations will suffer if retired Gen. Efrain Rios Montt is given a second chance to lead the country. Pre-election polls show Rios Montt trailing a distant third, but he has said he believes he will win Sunday.

Human rights groups in Guatemala and Spain have accused Rios Montt's former government of carrying out massacres, including the 1981 arson of the Spanish Embassy in Guatemala City in which 37 people died. Officials in both countries are investigating the charges. (snip)

(snip) A presidential win would extend Rios Montt's immunity from prosecution, which will expire when his term as senator and president of Congress ends in January. (snip/)

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/wire/ats-ap_intl13nov09,1,3780786.story?coll=sns-ap-topinternational

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