Nation Holds First Presidential Election Since 1996 Peace Accords

                  By Serge F. Kovaleski
                  Washington Post Foreign Service

                  GUATEMALA CITY, Nov. 7—The complexities of Guatemala's past
                  and present problems weighed heavily today among voters as they went to
                  the polls in the country's first presidential election since 1996 peace
                  agreements ended 36 years of civil conflict.

                  There were few signs of the heavy military presence that marked previous
                  elections, and throughout the day voting was reported to be peaceful at the
                  7,600 balloting sites. Voter turnout was heavy in a number of polling
                  stations across this capital, and the National Electoral Tribunal estimated
                  that nearly half of Guatemala's 4.5 million voters would cast ballots in a
                  nation that historically has had a low level of electoral participation.

                  However, an inexplicable shortage of buses that were to transport some
                  voters to polling locations in parts of Guatemala City prompted the
                  opposition Guatemalan Republican Front (FRG) to file a formal complaint
                  with the tribunal, international monitors said.

                  According to recent pre-election polls, the FRG's candidate, Alfonso
                  Portillo, a 48-year-old lawyer and economist, was the front-runner with
                  about 45 percent of the vote, despite accusations that the party's founder
                  and general secretary, a 74-year-old former military coup leader, was
                  responsible for genocide when he was president in the early 1980s.

                  Two months ago, Portillo stunned the nation when he admitted he had
                  fatally shot two men, in what he insists was self-defense, in a brawl in
                  Mexico 17 years ago and then fled because he feared he would be unfairly
                  prosecuted. A judge closed the case in 1995.

                  But Portillo's popularity has grown since the disclosure. He has made the
                  Mexico incident a centerpiece of his populist law-and-order campaign that
                  has resonated with many Guatemalans who view the government as
                  oligarchic, dishonest and incapable of delivering the prosperity and public
                  safety they had hoped would come with peace.

                  Trailing Portillo by about 12 percentage points, the polls show, is Oscar
                  Berger, 53, a businessman and former Guatemala City mayor who is the
                  candidate of the ruling National Advancement Party. In an effort to counter
                  Portillo's strident anti-establishment message, the National Advancement
                  Party recently intensified efforts to portray itself as a more broad-based
                  party and has counted on concerns about the past of some of the
                  Republican Front's military members, and especially former president
                  Efrain Rios Montt, to boost its showing in today's contest.

                  The election is also the first in which Guatemala's former Marxist rebels ran
                  as a political party. But polls indicated that Alvaro Colom, 48, an industrial
                  engineer and candidate for the leftist New Nation Alliance coalition, which
                  includes the former guerrillas, was in distant third place. To avoid a Dec.
                  26 runoff, one of the candidates in the field of 11 must win an outright
                  majority of the votes.

                  The balloting comes at a time of disappointment and concern over the
                  failure of President Alvaro Arzu's administration to implement key reforms
                  tied to the ambitious three-year-old peace accords that were aimed at
                  rebuilding Guatemala and addressing the social, political and economic
                  problems that fueled the war.

                  "The government has no interest in those of us living on the fringes of
                  society. The ruling party is nothing but a party of the rich, but now we can
                  change that," said Luis Lima, 27, who is unemployed and voted for
                  Portillo.

                  Four years ago, Portillo ran strongly against Arzu, who is constitutionally
                  barred from seeking reelection.

                  Despite 5.1 percent economic growth last year, an estimated 80 percent of
                  the country's 11 million people live below the poverty line. The situation is
                  exacerbated by annual inflation of about 7 percent and sagging coffee and
                  sugar prices worldwide that have hurt export revenues.

                  Voters today were also electing members to the newly expanded
                  113-member Congress, as well as local officials in 330 municipalities and
                  20 delegates to the Central American Parliament.

                  Some voters said they opposed the FRG because of its association with
                  Rios Montt, 74, the party leader and onetime coup leader accused of
                  genocide during the conflict, in which an estimated 200,000 people were
                  killed or disappeared.

                  "Mine is a vote against the FRG," said Jose Asturias, a 23-year-old
                  industrial engineer who voted for the ruling party. "It is this very dark past
                  that bothers me. It seems that some people have chosen to forget or ignore
                  the horrible things that happened."

                  But Guatemalans are also concerned about widespread crime and a justice
                  system that remains dysfunctional due to corruption, incompetence and
                  inefficiency. These frustrations have drawn many people to Portillo, who
                  openly sympathized with leftist guerrillas during the war but has found
                  common ground on issues with Rios Montt, who ruled as a dictator for 17
                  months in 1982 and 1983.

                  "What we saw was that General [Rios] Montt made strong laws. He will
                  help against the violence, and we need change," said voter Tomas
                  Doroteo.

                  Rios Montt, who is barred from being elected president, is a candidate for
                  a seat in Congress on his party's ticket, and is thought likely to win. That
                  would position him to become the chamber's next president. Despite
                  assurances from Portillo to the contrary, critics have speculated that Rios
                  Montt may try to run the country behind the scenes should Portillo win the
                  presidency.

                  The ruling party and other opponents of Rios Montt's party have tried to
                  paint it as a vestige of Guatemala's old military guard. "Let's reject the
                  violence, the blood and the terror the opposition party stands for," Berger
                  told thousands of supporters a week ago. "Our fatherland is in peril. Let us
                  not allow our peace and a process that includes all Guatemalans to be
                  taken away from us."

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