Guatemala (AFP)

Right-wing candidate Alejandro Giammattei was elected to the presidency of Guatemala on Sunday, the electoral court said, citing preliminary results of the "notoriously irreversible" second round of voting.

With 95% of the ballots counted, Dr. Giammattei was credited with 58.7% of the vote, according to the count reported by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE). The party of his social democratic opponent Sandra Torres has acknowledged his defeat.

Alejandro Giammattei promised to fight criminals and drug traffickers with "testosterone", and restore the death penalty. Like his social democratic opponent, he spoke out against same-sex marriage and the legalization of abortion.

Moving on crutches due to a 40-year-old illness, the Conservative doctor has been making his fourth application since 2007, each time for different parties.

- Untimely and uncontrollable anger -

Elected under the colors of the right-wing party Vamos (Let's Go), Mr. Giammattei is feared for his untimely and uncontrollable anger.

Former director of the prison administration, he himself knew the prison for 10 months in 2010. Accused in a case of extrajudicial execution of eight detainees in 2006, he was released for lack of evidence but remained, he says , deeply marked by this experience of incarceration.

The vote was marked by a strong absence of more than 55%, according to preliminary results.

More than eight million Guatemalan voters were expected to vote on Sunday to elect the successor to incumbent President Jimmy Morales, whose only four-year term was tainted by numerous scandals.

The inauguration of the new president is scheduled for 14 January 2020.

The voters met by AFP might be disillusioned, they hope that their new president will be keen to overcome the three plagues of their country: corruption, criminal violence and misery.

- "Let him keep his promises" -

"We want a president for real ... Let him keep his promises," said AFP Marta Lidia Subuyuj, a 43-year-old peasant woman.

The two finalists of the presidential competition were old drivers of the politics of Guatemala: Sandra Torres was on her third attempt and Alejandro Giammattei was seeking for the fourth time a presidential term.

Former anti-corruption judge Thelma Aldana, who could have met the aspirations for change, was removed from the competition. Accused of having recruited a trainee for a fictitious job, under the terms of an international arrest warrant, she took the road to exile.

The Guatemalans were scalded by incumbent President Jimmy Morales: they thought to renew the political class by electing in 2015 this TV comedian without any experience of power ... Las, the mountebank finishes his only four-year term under the baton of a survey for illegal campaign financing.

"I do not trust the politicians because four years ago people wanted something different with Jimmy Morales and it was worse," said Kimberly Sal, a 19-year-old teacher slipped his ballot Sunday into the ballot box.

- humiliating migration pact -

The corruption that plagues Guatemala and the humiliating migration pact imposed by Donald Trump dominated the election campaign for the second round.

Both candidates have said they will fight corruption. This assertion, however, faces the skepticism of their opponents and analysts, especially since Ms. Torres and Mr. Giammattei have announced they want to do without the help of CICIG, the UN anti-corruption mission, declared undesirable to have indicted the outgoing president.

To the nagging concern of the fight against corruption, has recently been added the humiliation of a migration pact ripped off by Donald Trump.

Despite the outcry raised in Guatemala by this agreement with fuzzy terms and concluded in opacity, both candidates were very cautious in their comments and their intentions.

According to the White House, this state is now considered a "safe third country" with which asylum seekers will have to make their first steps.

For many NGO leaders, Guatemala can not receive migrants en route to the United States even though it can not even provide for its own population.

This country of the "northern triangle" of Central America provides itself, with neighboring Honduras and El Salvador, one of the largest contingents of candidates for the "American dream" and who jump on the roads to escape poverty and poverty. gang violence.

© 2019 AFP