Center-left wins presidential elections in Guatemala

Alvaro Colom wins presidential election with 53 percent of the vote

Election campaign marred by violence although calm prevails in voting

GUATEMALA CITY, November 5 -- Alvaro Colom of the center-left National Union of Hope party was declared Monday the official victor in Sunday's presidential election.

Fourteen members of Alvaro Colom's National Union of Hope party were assassinated during the campaign.

"God was with Sandrita and me," said Colom late Sunday night, referring to his wife Sandra. "Thanks to the Guatemalan people for making this civic holiday such a marvelous day."

It was the 56-year-old industrial engineer's third try for the presidency and his first to succeed.

Of the 2.7 million valid votes cast nationwide, Colom won 1.4 million (53
percent) versus 1.3 million (47 percent) for his challenger, retired Gen. Otto Perez Molina of the conservative Patriot Party, according to the nation's official Web site, which said 100 percent of the vote had been counted.

"We lost a battle, but we haven't lost the war -- the war against corruption,"
Perez told his supporters. "We are going to support and help with all that is correct for Guatemala, but we are also going to be disposed to be critical."

Analyst Sylvia Gereda said Colom owed his victory to support from the country's rural areas -- "the area where there is hunger, where there are necessities."

During the coming two months, Colom will put together his transition team and name his cabinet members.

Major campaign issues included policies for reducing Guatemala's high crime rate and violence and the migration of Guatemalans to the United States, where many are working illegally.

Colom, in an August 30 debate co-sponsored by CNN en Espanol and Guatemala's Channel 3, said reducing poverty would help reduce crime while Perez said he would strengthen Guatemala's police and military while getting tough with criminals.

Colom's party -- the National Union of Hope -- was hard hit by assassinations that marked Guatemala's election season. In the debate two months ago, he said the killings of 14 members of his party were "without any doubt carried out by organized crime."

Colom said the migrants to the United States are "true heroes who go there to work, not to bother anyone; they go there in search of a dream."

He said he would "build a great nation that will generate hope here in Guatemala and bring hope back to Guatemala."