Guatemalans defy call to boycott poll

Press, 9 March 1982, Page 8

Guatemalans defy call to boycott poll

NZPA Guatemala City Gunmen wounded ■ three people at a -polling station and three guerrillas were killed in a shoot-out yesterday as tens of thousands of Guatemalan voters ignored a Leftist call to boycott the presidential election. Three civilians and a general, who range politically from Centre Right to Extreme Right, are seeking the presidency. General Angel Anibal Guevara, candidate of the coalition that has held power for the last 12 years, led in fragmentary returns from the first three provinces reporting. Guatel, the Government telecommunications agency in charge of election communications, said that General Guevara polled 689 votes from the western provinces of Quezaltenango and San Marcos and the central province of Solola. The three provinces have 16 per cent of the country’s 2.3 million eligible voters. The police said gunmen opened fire at a polling place on the capital’s southern edges and fled in a speeding car shortly before voting for a new President and other officials opened. Later, authorities said that three terrorists, one with a sack full of bombs, were killed in a shoot-out with the police. At least 36 other people died in political violence on election eve.

Election-day security was heavy throughout the capital. Soldiers guarded polling places with machine-guns mounted' on jeeps and spot car checks were made on the highways outside the city. In the town of San Miguel Panan, 130 km south-west of Guatemala City, the police said that guerrillas burned the electoral registry and all paper ballots before the polls opened.

On the road to Chichicastenango, 50km north-west of Guatemala City, guerrillas cut down trees and used them to block the road, a witness said? Authorities said a bomb exploded and shots were heard on the outskirts of nearby Chiche, but there were no injuries or damage. Three guerrillas were killed and three captured in a raid in that area at the week-end. Travellers from two northwestern provinces where Leftist guerrilla activity has been heavy reported, a bet-ter-than-av'erage turn-out. In the capital, marimba bands played for long lines of voters.

The Government promised “free, clean, and pure" elections, but Leftists urged Guatemalans to boycott them, calling them a “farce." The election was called to replace the three-party mili-tary-civilian Administration which took power after the last General Election in 1978. Since then,..the Central American country has become a battleground between the guerrillas and the armed forces, backed by Rightist extremists. .

Human-rights groups say at least 3500 people were killed in political violence last year. . The country recently has played a major role in efforts by the Reagan Administration to turn back what it sees as a growing tide of Leftist influence in Central America, including El Salvador and Nicaragua. The American Secretary of State (Mr Alexander Haig) said last week that the guerrilla campaign in Guatemala had brought the country to the “verge of a crisis threatening’Mexico.” He said the campaign by the Leftist insurgents could pose the most serious threat in . Central America because of the Country’s border with oil-producing Mexico.