Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
03GUATEMALA2948
2003-11-18 16:33:00
UNCLASSIFIED
Embassy Guatemala
Cable title:  

RIOS MONTT CONCEDES, AND OTHER POST-ELECTION

Tags:  PGOV PREL PINR EAID PHUM GT 
pdf how-to read a cable
This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

181633Z Nov 03
UNCLAS GUATEMALA 002948 

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PREL PINR EAID PHUM GT
SUBJECT: RIOS MONTT CONCEDES, AND OTHER POST-ELECTION
DEVELOPMENTS


UNCLAS GUATEMALA 002948

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PREL PINR EAID PHUM GT
SUBJECT: RIOS MONTT CONCEDES, AND OTHER POST-ELECTION
DEVELOPMENTS



1. Summary: On November 14, FRG presidential candidate Rios
Montt publicly accepted the election results which put an end
to his presidential aspirations. No challenges have been
filed to the results of the national elections (and only
minor challenges in municipal races). The Supreme Electoral
Tribunal told reporters that many of the technical and
administrative problems experienced in the first round of the
election would be corrected before the second round. Berger
began campaigning in the countryside immediately after his
first round victory, and Colom took a week's holiday in
California. The losers in the November 9 election are
beginning to line up behind Berger or Colom for the second
round. End summary.


2. In the first public appearance since his electoral defeat,
FRG candidate Efrain Rios Montt ran a TV spot on November 14
acknowledging his loss in the November 9 elections. Speaking
for the FRG, he said "we have accepted the results of the
first round of elections, and we recognize the results cited
by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal." He went on to thank his
supporters for voting for the FRG and giving it a large bloc
in Congress. The period in which challenges to the elections
could be filed expired on November 14. Challenges were filed
to the results of municipal elections in a handful of small
towns, and the elections will be repeated in five rural
municipalities where ballots were burned on election day.


3. The Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) held a press
conference on November 14 in which President Bolanos said
that the TSE would be making adjustments to voting procedures
in the second round of elections on December 28 to correct
some of the problems that resulted in long lines and
significant voter frustration during the first round. Among
the changes, the TSE plans to increase training for the
officers manning the voting tables, and to make sure that TSE
officers at each voting site are better prepared to address
problems involving the voter registration list. Noticeably
absent from the proposed changes were any mention of reducing
the number of voters per table or correcting the underlying
problems with the voter registration list itself.


4. The second round campaign is already in full swing for
GANA candidate Oscar Berger, while Alvaro Colom took the week
off to visit Disneyland with his wife and stepson. Berger,
recognizing that he lost much of the rural vote in the first
round to Colom, spent the week after the first round
campaigning in small towns around the country (Salcaja and
Coatepeque in the west, and Gualan and Esquipulas in the
east).


5. The losers in the November 9 first round election are
beginning to line up behind the remaining two candidates.
The PAN Executive Committee printed a full page add in the
major dailies calling on their supporters to vote for Alvaro
Colom in the second round, through influential PAN leader
Abraham Rivera and a number of newly-elected PAN mayors came
out endorsing Berger. The FRG has not endorsed either
candidate in the second round, and apparently does not intend
to.
HAMILTON