WOMEN DIE IN POLLING DAY CLASH
By Jo Tuckman in Guatemala City

November 10, 2003 – (The Guardian) Two women were reportedly trampled to death yesterday and a political aide was shot and injured as Guatemalans voted in presidential elections after a campaign steeped in violence and tension.

Long queues of voters waited outside polling stations to cast ballots in a poll that could mark either a comeback or the political swansong of the country's most notorious strongman, Efraín Ríos Montt.

Some 30 people have been killed in the run-up to the vote, the second presidential ballot since peace accords in 1996 ended 36 years of civil war.

In an incident reported yesterday, the two women were trampled to death after a crowd fought to enter a polling station in the northern city Chajul. Several others were injured.

Late on Saturday, a top aide to the opposition candidate, Alvaro Colom, was shot in the leg and hand as he entered his home, fuelling fears of attacks against candidates. Mr Colom is expected to get around one-third of the votes, putting him neck-and-neck with conservative businessman and former Guatemala City mayor Oscar Berger. The two are expected to advance to a run-off vote.

Ríos Montt was a distant third, according to opinion polls, though his support may have been underestimated, given how well his populist manifesto played in rural areas.

Mr Ríos Montt's message has been well received in this crime-ridden and poverty-stricken country, but his appeal is weakened by the fact that his political party, the Guatemalan Republican Front, has been in power for the last four years.

In the run-up to the elections, human rights campaigners, among them the Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchu, called for an anti-Ríos Montt vote.

One pre-election survey found that only 33% of Guatemalans believe that democracy is the most preferable form of government. None of the 11 presidential candidates are indigenous despite the fact that Mayan Indians make up the majority of the population.

The winner will replace the incumbent president, Alfonso Portillo.

From: http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1081500,00.html