THE right wing candidate opposed to a former dictator was officially declared the victor yesterday in Sunday's presidential run off.
Mr Alvaro Arzu, a 49 year old businessman and leader of the neo liberal National Advancement Party (PAN), defeated his rival, Mr Alfonso Portillo, of the right wing Guatemalan Republican Front (FRG) 51 to 49 per cent, according to the tally by the Supreme Election Tribunal.
Voter turnout was low as predicted, especially in heavily indigenous interior regions, with an overall abstention rate of 63 per cent, according to election officials. Some 3.7 million Guatemalans out of a population of 10.6 million were eligible to vote in the run off election.
Mr Arzu's advantage came in the capital where he obtained 110,000 more votes than his rival. Mr Portillo managed to carry 17 of the 22 departments in the nation.
Mr Portillo had the support of the former president, Gen Efrain Rios Montt. The defeat for Gen Rios Montt, who presided over what human rights groups call one of the Americas' most abusive regimes this century, may mean the loss of a chance of returning to the centre of power.
Mr Portillo made a controversial announcement during the campaign that if he were elected, he would make Gen Rios Montt his Interior and Security Minister.
Now a born again Christian, Gen Rios Montt came to power, in a 1982 military coup.
In a violent rule that ended the, following year, he presided over scorched earth anti insurgent campaign that razed entire Mayan villages where suspected rebels or merely sympathisers were thought to be.
Thousands of people were killed and more fled into exile. He is currently an energetic political operator and legislature speaker whom many indigenous people admire as a would be hard line crime fighter.
The former general tried to run for president himself this year. He led in early polls, but a court ruled he was constitutionally barred from running for having seized power in a coup.
There was no election related violence reported on Sunday and none of the roughly 11,000 security forces posted around the country had to respond to any emergencies. But the run up to the elections was marked by violence. Four political and union leaders were shot dead between Friday and Saturday, the representative for human rights in Guatemala, Mr Mario Garcia Laguardia said.