EL ASINTAL, GUATEMALA — In a presidential race already tinged with foul language, accusations of murder and the dark shadow of drug money, a suspected campaign dirty trick doesn't get many people excited.
When front-runner Alvaro Colom arrived in this town in western Guatemala, the plaza in the center of town had gone dark. Coincidence? Perhaps, but cutting off the power and rendering an opponent's sound system inoperable is a common campaign tactic.
"The things we've been through," said campaign official Fernando Barillas, shaking his head. A generator was procured, and the rally went off without a hitch.
Colom, a veteran centrist politico, is the favorite in the Sept. 9 election, according to most polls and observers. But with as many as 19 men and women on the ballot, a clear victory for any candidate is far from likely.
If no candidate wins an outright majority, a second round of balloting will be scheduled for Nov. 4.
Most voters doubt that any of the candidates is up to the challenge of running an impoverished, overpopulated country suffering from a terrifying crime wave and a collapse of its criminal justice system, said Victor Galvez, a political analyst at the Latin American Faculty for Social Sciences, a university here. The breakdown of law and order claimed the lives of three Salvadoran lawmakers in February -- and the Guatemalan police officers charged in their deaths were slain while in custody.
"There hasn't been a lot of enthusiasm in this election," Galvez said. Most polls here list about a third of voters as still undecided. "The electorate is tremendously skeptical."
Colom is a low-key 56-year-old engineer and businessman who finished second to winner Oscar Berger in the 2003 presidential election. Under attack from many of the candidates trailing him in the polls, he struck back in June with a startling obscenity.
"My opponents are idiots," Colom told reporters in June, using a vulgar Spanish synonym for "idiots" that also means pubic hair. "They spend all their time photocopying my plans."
In an interview with The Times, Colom clarified his remarks.
"When I called them idiots, I wasn't referring to all of my opponents, only the ones that have attacked me," he said. "And they are the only ones that were offended."
Colom's chief nemesis has been the man running second in the polls, retired army Gen. Otto Perez Molina.
