US embassy cable - 03GUATEMALA2948

UNCLAS GUATEMALA 002948 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, PREL, PINR, EAID, PHUM, GT 
SUBJECT: RIOS MONTT CONCEDES, AND OTHER POST-ELECTION 
DEVELOPMENTS 
 
 
1. Summary: On November 14, FRG presidential candidate Rios 
Montt publicly accepted the election results which put an end 
to his presidential aspirations.  No challenges have been 
filed to the results of the national elections (and only 
minor challenges in municipal races).  The Supreme Electoral 
Tribunal told reporters that many of the technical and 
administrative problems experienced in the first round of the 
election would be corrected before the second round.  Berger 
began campaigning in the countryside immediately after his 
first round victory, and Colom took a week's holiday in 
California.  The losers in the November 9 election are 
beginning to line up behind Berger or Colom for the second 
round.  End summary. 
 
2. In the first public appearance since his electoral defeat, 
FRG candidate Efrain Rios Montt ran a TV spot on November 14 
acknowledging his loss in the November 9 elections.  Speaking 
for the FRG, he said "we have accepted the results of the 
first round of elections, and we recognize the results cited 
by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal."  He went on to thank his 
supporters for voting for the FRG and giving it a large bloc 
in Congress.  The period in which challenges to the elections 
could be filed expired on November 14.  Challenges were filed 
to the results of municipal elections in a handful of small 
towns, and the elections will be repeated in five rural 
municipalities where ballots were burned on election day. 
 
3. The Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) held a press 
conference on November 14 in which President Bolanos said 
that the TSE would be making adjustments to voting procedures 
in the second round of elections on December 28 to correct 
some of the problems that resulted in long lines and 
significant voter frustration during the first round.  Among 
the changes, the TSE plans to increase training for the 
officers manning the voting tables, and to make sure that TSE 
officers at each voting site are better prepared to address 
problems involving the voter registration list.  Noticeably 
absent from the proposed changes were any mention of reducing 
the number of voters per table or correcting the underlying 
problems with the voter registration list itself. 
 
4. The second round campaign is already in full swing for 
GANA candidate Oscar Berger, while Alvaro Colom took the week 
off to visit Disneyland with his wife and stepson.  Berger, 
recognizing that he lost much of the rural vote in the first 
round to Colom, spent the week after the first round 
campaigning in small towns around the country (Salcaja and 
Coatepeque in the west, and Gualan and Esquipulas in the 
east). 
 
5. The losers in the November 9 first round election are 
beginning to line up behind the remaining two candidates. 
The PAN Executive Committee printed a full page add in the 
major dailies calling on their supporters to vote for Alvaro 
Colom in the second round, through influential PAN leader 
Abraham Rivera and a number of newly-elected PAN mayors came 
out endorsing Berger.  The FRG has not endorsed either 
candidate in the second round, and apparently does not intend 
to. 
HAMILTON