Guatemala vote still too close to call

Guatemala City

--

Guatemala's presidential vote last weekend is still too close to call, officials said, as the country awaits the name of the runner-up to face comedian Jimmy Morales (pictured) in a runoff.

Sunday's first-round race ended with two candidates virtually tied for second place: former first lady Sandra Torres and millionaire businessman Manuel Baldizon.

With 98.92 percent of the ballots counted, Torres, a social democrat, had 19.74 percent of the vote to 19.65 percent for conservative lawyer Baldizon.

The head of the electoral tribunal, Rudy Pineda, said officials still do not know when they will be able to declare a runner-up.

"It appears there is a technical tie," he told a press conference.

Officials are currently doing a recount by hand of the more than 19,000 polling stations, which is expected to wrap up Friday, he said.

Whichever candidate comes out on top will face surprise front-runner Morales (23.85 percent) in a runoff on October 25.

It is a dramatic finish to a campaign rocked by the resignation and arrest of president Otto Perez, months of protests against his scandal-hit government and a last-minute surge in the polls by Morales, a political outsider riding a wave of popular disgust with politics-as-usual.

Since the election, authorities have reported 166 violent incidents across the country, where tensions are rife following months of political upheaval.

A town councillor-elect was killed in eastern Guatemala, 34 people have been wounded, five vehicles set on fire -- including three police cars -- and 532 people arrested, said the special prosecutor for election offenses, Oscar Schaad.

Protests continue to smolder in at least seven places, he said.

The turmoil erupted in April, when prosecutors and investigators from a UN commission tasked with fighting high-level graft in Guatemala accused Perez administration officials of taking bribes from businesses in return for illegal customs discounts.

After defying months of calls to quit, Perez -- who was ineligible for reelection and would have finished his term on January 14 -- finally submitted his resignation after Congress stripped him of his immunity and a judge issued a warrant for his arrest.

He was indicted Tuesday and is in jail awaiting trial.