Early vote count for Guatemala’s presidential election indicates 2nd round ahead

By SONIA PÉREZ D. and CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN
Associated Press

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — Preliminary and partial results in Guatemala’s presidential election indicate the likelihood of a second round of voting and who the two candidates would be in the Aug. 20 runoff. Seventy percent of the votes were counted early Monday. The Supreme Electoral Tribunal reported that former first lady Sandra Torres for the conservative UNE party and Bernardo Arévalo for the leftist Seed Movement were in the lead, but both were below 20% of the votes. That’s far from the 50% threshold needed to win in the first round. Other candidates were not far enough behind to be ruled out either.