Guatemalan general election, 1999
Guatemalan presidential election, 1999
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General elections were held in Guatemala on 7 November 1999, with a second round of the presidential elections on 26 December.[1] Alfonso Portillo won the presidential elections, whilst his Guatemalan Republican Front also won the Congressional elections. Voter turnout was 53.8% on 7 November and 40.4% on 26 December.[2]
Media owner Remigio Ángel González gave more than $2.6 million and free airtime to Alfonso Portillo's campaign,[3] which led to some political analysts to claim that the free adverts helped Portillo win the election.[4] After becoming president, Portillo appointed Gonzalez's brother-in-law Luis Rabbé to the post of Minister of Communications, Infrastructure and Housing, a post which included responsibility for overseeing the broadcast media.[4] The presidential election also established a pattern for the next 16 years in which the runner-up of the previous contest then went on to win.
Results
President
| Candidate |
Party |
First round |
Second round |
| Votes |
% |
Votes |
% |
| Alfonso Portillo | Guatemalan Republican Front | 1,045,820 | 47.72 | 1,184,932 | 68.31 |
| Óscar Berger | National Advancement Party | 664,417 | 30.32 | 549,408 | 31.69 |
| Álvaro Colom | URNG-DIA | 270,891 | 12.36 | |
| Acisclo Valladares Molína | Progressive Liberating Party | 67,924 | 3.10 | |
| Juan Francisco Bianchi Castillo | Democratic Renewal Action Party | 45,470 | 2.07 | |
| Ana Catalina Soberanis Reyes | Democratic Front New Guatemala | 28,108 | 1.28 | |
| José Enrique Asturias Rudeke | LOV-UD | 25,236 | 1.15 | |
| Danilo Julian Roca Barillas | National Centre Union | 22,939 | 1.05 | |
| Carlos Humberto Pérez Rodríguez | National Liberation Movement | 13,080 | 0.60 | |
| Emilio Eva Saldívar | Democratic Action | 4,929 | 0.22 | |
| Flor de María Alvarado Suárez de Solis | ARENA | 2,698 | 0.12 | |
| Invalid/blank votes | 205,700 | – | 65,588 | – |
| Total | 2,397,212 | 100 | 1,799,928 | 100 |
| Source: Nohlen |
Congress
| Party |
PR |
District |
Total seats |
|---|
| Votes |
% |
Seats |
Votes |
% |
Seats |
| Guatemalan Republican Front | 891,429 | 42.1 | 11 | 879,839 | 41.4 | 52 | 63 |
| National Advancement Party | 570,108 | 26.9 | 7 | 589,550 | 27.7 | 30 | 37 |
| New Nation Alliance | 233,870 | 11.0 | 2 | 231,970 | 10.9 | 7 | 9 |
| Guatemalan Christian Democracy | 86,839 | 4.1 | 1 | 68,609 | 3.2 | 1 | 2 |
| Progressive Liberating Party | 84,187 | 4.0 | 1 | 91,484 | 4.3 | 0 | 1 |
| Democratic Renewal Action Party | 63,824 | 3.0 | 0 | 76,994 | 3.6 | 0 | 0 |
| Democratic Front New Guatemala | 60,821 | 2.9 | 0 | 53,544 | 2.5 | 0 | 0 |
| LOV-UD | 48,184 | 2.3 | 0 | 48,398 | 2.3 | 1 | 1 |
| National Centre Union | 42,921 | 2.0 | 0 | 40,069 | 1.9 | 0 | 0 |
| National Liberation Movement | 22,857 | 1.0 | 0 | 21,656 | 1.0 | 0 | 0 |
| Democratic Action | 8,644 | 0.4 | 0 | 6,074 | 0.3 | 0 | 0 |
| ARENA | 4,178 | 0.2 | 0 | 1,868 | 0.1 | 0 | 0 |
| UCN-DCG | – | – | – | 6,480 | 0.3 | 0 | 0 |
| DCG-FDNG | – | – | – | 5,792 | 0.3 | 0 | 0 |
| National Union | – | – | – | 3,222 | 0.2 | 0 | 0 |
| MLN-DCG | – | – | – | 1,829 | 0.1 | 0 | 0 |
| Invalid/blank votes | 279,011 | – | – | 268,249 | – | – | – |
| Total | 2,396,883 | 100 | 22 | 2,395,627 | 100 | 91 | 113 |
| Source: Nohlen |
References
- ↑ Nohlen, D (2005) Elections in the Americas: A data handbook, Volume I, p323 ISBN 978-0-19-928357-6
- ↑ Nohlen, p324
- ↑ Rockwell, Rick and Janus, Noreene (2001), "Stifling Dissent: the fallout from a Mexican media invasion of Central America, Journalism Studies, 2: 4, 497 — 512
- 1 2 Domination of Latin airwaves has 'Ghost' scaring his critics Associated Press, 9 June 2002
Bibliography
- Villagrán Kramer, Francisco. Biografía política de Guatemala: años de guerra y años de paz. FLACSO-Guatemala, 2004.
- Political handbook of the world 1999. New York, 2000.
