It’s time to talk a bit about the elections that just took place last Sunday, June 25, in Guatemala. But first, some disclaimers.
Disclaimer #1: I know very little about Guatemalan politics.
Disclaimer #2: I know even less about how Guatemalan elections work in normal, or abnormal times. So, I don’t know if this was a “normal” election year.
Disclaimer #3: I’m not a political scientist.
With those disclaimers firmly in mind here are my thoughts regarding the recent election.
First and foremost, I have to say a bit about the run up to the elections. I will be comparing this period to the run up to major US elections since that is my only basis for comparison. When we returned to Guatemala after our trip to Mexico we noticed a huge increase in the number of signs posted for various presidential candidates in Guatemala City. It was very noticeable on the route between Guatemala City and Antigua, all of the medians were covered with politicians signs. Ok, so far that seems pretty normal by my standards. When we arrived at the lake the town fair, feria, was underway, so the politics weren’t really highlighted immediately… other than the fact that our neighbor was a mayoral candidate for San Marcos, which meant that there were massive banners for him on and around the property. However, as the feria wrapped up, and we expected San Marcos to return to the somewhat sleepy small village that we have become accustomed to, something else happened. We started to hear songs and announcements played over loudspeakers around the village… Then we got a text from our neighbor to let us know that he would be playing music and making announcements from his roof the following day. This was to be only the start of what would continue until two days before the election.
So, when I say music and announcements were being played I’m not sure if I’m painting quite the right picture. What was happening was that each mayoral candidate, on some schedule that I was never able to deduce, would set up a series of loudspeakers on their property, generally a roof for maximum projection. Then they would play propaganda songs for their political party, and for the candidate loud enough for everyone in the village to hear. These songs seemed to be played on a loop every time they were played, so not only did you hear the song once a day, but often several times in an hour, and multiple times per day. Generally, the music was followed by a speech, which was partly in Spanish, which I kind of understood, and the rest was in Kaqchikel, a Mayan dialect, which I proudly know about 3 words of. Our neighbor’s roof is about 30 feet from our giant glass windows. To say that it was loud when he made announcements is a wild understatement. With all of our plate glass windows closed, and our headphones on, we were unable to drown out the sounds of his announcements. It was kind of intense.
As the date of the election approached, political activities increased. We started seeing groups marching with/for their political candidate, or party, of choice. These generally included a lead pickup truck with a giant loudspeaker strapped to it, playing their songs and making announcements as the marches wound their way through the streets of the three barrios (neighborhoods) here. They would also often launch bombas (mortars) as they marched. (I have no idea how, or if, this was safe.) One day Farrah and I went out to meet some friends and got caught in the middle of one of these marches. We guessed the wrong way into town to avoid an ongoing march, and found ourselves standing directly in the path of the march. This might sound scary, but really it was mostly just loud. The truck with the loud speaker stopped near us as it moved slowly uphill, and some bombas were launched close by as we stood and waited for the crowd to pass. As the crowd was moving past a figure ran up to me, and gave me a big hug. It turned out my friend Selvin who owns Arati Cafe was in the crowd and spotted us.
The political activities increased to include parties held by the candidates in the final weeks leading up to the election. Our neighbor was generally very good about notifying us about events so we weren’t surprised by a sudden volume increase on the property. However, there were a couple parties where bombas were launched and exploded very close to our windows which was shocking, no matter how prepared I thought I was. I spent half an hour one morning after a party sweeping up detritus from bombas that were strewn over our porch.
I’ve thought about this a fair amount, and I’m not sure there is a better way for candidates here to share their messages. Many villagers live in very small homes, some without power. So, clearly TV and radio spots in a village of 4000 wouldn’t reach many members of the voting populace. What’s the alternative then? Loud speakers, or a public scheduled venue would be the only choices, right? And if public meetings here are as well attended in the US, then you’d be better off locking yourself in a room and shouting your message into the void. Thus, loudspeakers.
So, it was loud, a lot of the time. And then, on Friday, June 23rd two days before the election all the announcements, music, and bombas abruptly stopped at noon. It turns out that by law all political announcements had to stop at that time. Then on Saturday alcohol sales stopped until after the election. The election weekend was quiet in San Marcos. I stayed home on election day and practiced my mandolin. Farrah went out to Tzununa to attend a kirtan with a friend. The entire town seemed quiet from my vantage point, and Farrah confirmed that both San Marcos and Tzununa seemed very quiet to her.
On Monday I read a bit about the election results on Aljazeera and Prensa Libre. Then I went to the coffee shop to talk with Selvin about who had won the mayoral election, since I couldn’t find the results on the internet. The incumbent mayor won, if you were wondering. The presidential election wasn’t instantly decided. In Guatemala, there are many more viable political parties than in the US. So, in the presidential election what happened was that the field of some 22 candidates split the vote. I believe that Guatemalan election law requires a candidate to win 50% (don’t quote me on this) of the vote in a presidential election to win outright. If that doesn’t happen then the two candidates with the highest percentages of the votes go to a runoff in October. So, that’s what happened. One of the two highest polling candidates, Sandra Torres, made it to the next round of votes, along with Bernardo Arévalo de León, whom I gather from my limited research, was something of a surprise. In October voters will go back to the polls to choose between these two candidates.
Interestingly, there is a vote category called the “null vote”, which I believe means a person cast a vote for none of the options. It’s my understanding that if enough null votes are cast the election has to be re-run completely. The null vote won a higher percentage in the presidential elections than any presidential candidate.
I should mention that some news sources have reported protests, etc. after the elections. I haven’t read a ton about this, so where facts and information fail me here I will fill in with some speculation. There seem to have been some oddities regarding which candidates were allowed to compete in the election. It seems this may have contributed to frustration with the elections, and possibly the large percentage of null votes. I’m sure there have been protests about the election, however we have not seen any protests here in San Marcos, nor have we heard of anything like that happening at the towns around the lake. It’s possible that we just haven’t seen it as we are only visitors here, but our local friends haven’t mentioned anything of the sort either, so I tend to think that any distress over the elections is being expressed more elsewhere, than here. I will also note that young people here that I have spoken with seem not to have a great deal of faith in the government. It is my impression that this is true in many countries, including my own.
I think that pretty much sums up my first experience of seeing elections take place in a foreign country. In many ways the whole thing seemed like a non-event. This is probably because I’m not invested in the results. It strikes me that maybe I’d be better off if I were to become less invested in the election outcomes at home.