A Guatemalan former general will face a centre-left businessman in a presidential election runoff in November after a close first-round vote, results showed today.
Alvaro Colom narrowly led ex-general Otto Perez Molina after votes from 65 per cent of polling stations were counted, with 27 per cent compared to 25 per cent for Mr Molina.
None of the candidates earned more than half the votes in yesterday's election, so a second round of voting will be held in November.
Mr Colom promises to fight poverty if elected, but his National Unity for Hope party has struggled to rid its ranks of drug gangs and crime groups.
Gen Perez Molina, vows a "strong fist" against crime and corruption, but critics fear a return to heavy-handed rule if the former head of army intelligence wins power.
The election campaign was tainted by the worst political violence since the end of the civil war in 1996, with drug gangs and political rivals killing 50 people in the campaign. But balloting was peaceful.
Guatemala, a crossroads for Colombian cocaine on its way to the United States, has one of the highest murder rates in the world, with almost 6,000 people killed in the country of 13 million last year.
After a US-backed coup overthrew the democratically elected government of President Jacobo Arbenz in 1954, the military ruled Guatemala almost without interruption until 1986.