Former Guatemalan General Otto Perez Molina elected president

Former Guatemalan General Otto Perez Molina elected president

2011-11-07 22:22:53 GMT+7 (ICT)

GUATEMALA CITY (BNO NEWS) -- Former Army General Otto Perez Molina was confirmed on Monday as the winner of Guatemala's presidential election, of which the second round was held during the weekend. He will be inaugurated in January.

Perez Molina, 61, of Guatemala City and founder of the Patriotic Party (PP) in 2001, received 53.76 percent of the votes. His opponent, Manuel Baldizon from the Renewed Democratic Liberty party, received 46.24 percent of the vote, according to Guatemala's Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE).

According to the TSE, as of Monday morning, 99.7 percent of the 4.46 million votes had already been retrieved and counted from the nationwide polling stations. Molina received 2.3 million votes while Baldizon had nearly 2 million votes, the tribunal said.

The first round of the election was held on September 11 but none of the ten candidates was able to secure more than 50 percent of the vote. Perez Molina received 36.10 percent of the votes during the first round, followed by Baldizon's 22.68 percent and Eduardo Suger's 16.62 percent.

As President-elect, Perez Molina is scheduled to be inaugurated on January 14, succeeding Alvaro Colom of the National Unity of Hope (UNE) party who has held the country's highest office since January 2008. Colom is constitutionally limited to only one term.

Perez Molina is a graduate of Guatemala's National Military Academy, the School of the Americas and the Inter-American Defense College. With a military rank of Brigade General, he retired from active military duty in January 2000, thirteen months before he founded the PP party. He previously ran for president in 2007 but ultimately lost to Colom.

Perez Molina will become the seventh elected president since democracy returned to the country in 1986. He will also be the first former military leader to become president since the end of the country's violent military rule.

Roxana Baldetti will become Guatemala's first elected female vice president.

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