GUATEMALAN ELECTIONS: PROBLEMS WITH VOTER

UNCLAS GUATEMALA 002869 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PINR KDEM EAID ASEC GT SUBJECT: GUATEMALAN ELECTIONS: PROBLEMS WITH VOTER REGISTRATION LIST GENERATE TENSIONS ¶1. Embassy election observers around the country report that voter lines are moving slowly and many intending voters are not able to vote because of problems with the voter registration list ("padron electoral") or their voter identification document ("cedula"). Authorities in Chimaltenango Department told the Ambassador that by 1100 hrs. over 2,000 intending voters were waiting at the municipality to have their identification documents stamped after having been turned away at their voting tables. Observers in rural communities similarly report that the higher-than-anticipated voter turnout and problems with the padron are resulting in long lines at the local offices of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE). In some areas, voter frustration is leading to an increase in tensions. Voting was suspended temporarily in the Pacific coastal town of Ixtapa early in the morning of November 9, but resumed once TSE officials arrived. OAS Election Observation Mission head SIPDIS Valentin Paniagua told reporters that the delays at the voting tables were largely because the TSE had not anticipated such a massive turnout, and expressed confidence that ultimately all voters would be able to cast their ballots. Voters standing in long lines in Solola told reporters they would wait out the long lines saying "it's better to lose four hours than four years." ¶2. Sources in the Police confirmed reports that an undetermined number of voting tables in the small town of El Quetzal, San Marcos Department were burned around noon by individuals intent on putting an end to the mayoral elections. It is not clear at this time who carried out the destruction of the voting tables, but URNG members told the TSE that supporters of UNE and GANA carried out the burning. SIPDIS Press reports indicate that frustrated intending voters burned ballot boxes in the coastal town of Coatepeque around 1400 hrs., arguing that their names were not on the "padron," but that FRG members were not similarly excluded from the "padron." Partisan differences have also reportedly boiled over in violent confrontations in three municipalities in Jalapa (San Luis Jilotopeque, Monjas and Chaparron) and in San Antonio Suchitepequez. ¶3. The Ambassador visited voter precincts in Antigua in the early afternoon and found that, unlike the rest of the country, Antigua voters are slow to going to the polls. Around 30% of voters had shown up at polling sites with only three hours left in the. ¶4. Unseasonable rains discouraged voters in Northern Guatemala in the afternoon hours. HAMILTON